Learning Luka: UNC Finding Bogavac as Skilled, Curious New Teammate

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — If there’s perhaps a sense of mystery surrounding how international import Luka Bogavac might adapt to basketball on the NCAA level and ultimately fit with North Carolina during the approaching season, the Tar Heels are finding him to be a skilled offensive player on the court, along with an enjoyable and inquisitive teammate in general.

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The 6-foot-6 guard is the newest addition among the 10 newcomers on UNC’s overhauled roster, and arrived on campus last month, after playing professionally for European club teams in Serbia and Montenegro. Bogavac spent the last two seasons in the Adriatic Basketball Association (ABA League) with the SC Derby club in his native Montenegro.

He turned 22 years old five days ago, is coming off the best pro season of his young career, during which he scored nearly 15 points per game, and has gained plenty of international experience while competing in a number of FIBA championships and qualifying tournaments for Montenegrin national teams.

And yet there’s still so much in front of him to learn now, with coach Hubert Davis’s Tar Heels having resumed preseason practice sessions in full this week.

“Luka as a person is super funny, super personable,” UNC veteran guard Seth Trimble said last week. “He just wants to get to know you. He’s super curious about American culture. What we do, how we hang out, what we eat, whatever it is. He’s a super funny guy. I think he’s really funny unintentionally, just because he’s coming over from Montenegro and he’s just so curious about things.

“But as a player, he’s just an incredible basketball player. He plays at his own pace. He’s looking for his shot. He’s ultra-aggressive on the offensive end, and it just brings another huge aspect to our team that we can really use. So I’m super excited for that.”

Across the next five weeks, UNC has the Blue-White scrimmage game (Oct. 4), a high-profile exhibition game at BYU (Oct. 24), and another exhibition game against Winston-Salem State (Oct. 29) to use for preparation in ramping up ahead of the new season, which begins with the Nov. 3 opener against Central Arkansas.

Bogavac committed the Tar Heels on May 31, cleared the UNC admissions process in early July, and was granted a student visa in August, after interviewing with U.S. embassy officials in Montenegro. The final step enabling Bogavac to become eligible to play in college basketball games is receiving NCAA clearance, which has been expected as something of a formality.

He supplied 14.9 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game last season for SC Derby in the ABA, while shooting 45.1 percent from the field, including 39.9 percent from 3-point range. He sank 87 percent on free throws. He delivered 19 points or more in eight of his final 15 ABA games, including a season-high 27 points (fueled by five successful 3-pointers) and 24 points (on the strength of a season-best seven 3s).

“He’s a great player,” UNC transfer center Henri Veesaar said recently of Bogavac. “He’s a little bit older than everybody. Like not everybody, but I would say for a freshman. So he’s definitely an experienced player, and he kind of knows what it takes to win. And (how to) practice with a team, kind of what standard we need to be at.

“I think he’s definitely going to have a little bit of adjustment period coming to the U.S., kind of adjusting to the rules and the physicality. And just having all these athletes and having to be able to defensively move your feet, and offensively having less time and space.”

The 7-footer Veesaar, a native of Estonia, speaks from a place of experience. Prior to his three seasons of college basketball at Arizona, he was a teenage big man playing for the Real Madrid Youth Academy in Spain. Sources around the Carolina basketball program said this week that Bogavac indeed has encountered some difficulties in operating against the defensive length and athleticism he’s facing now since joining the Tar Heels.

But the belief there is that Bogavac comes well-equipped to navigate such an adjustment. Veesaar pointed to “how under control he is at all times” while identifying one of Bogavac’s best attributes, along with his shooting ability.

Bogavac is the son of an accomplished basketball father, too, in addition to his own professional background. His dad, Nebojša Bogavac, played professionally in Europe for 13 seasons and has working in coaching since 2012. He’s currently an assistant coach for the French club Metropolitans 92 in Paris.

“When he’s maneuvering pick-and-rolls, nothing can really speed him up,” Veesaar said of Luka Bogavac. “He kind of stays at the free throw line and makes his decision. He’ll go for a jumper or floaters or pass out of it. But he’s very under control. You can’t really speed him up. I think that’s one of his great qualities.”

Several of Bogavac’s former teammates from the SC Derby club are embarking on their own NCAA basketball journeys this season, including David Mirkovic (at Illinois), Andrija Grbović (Arizona State) and Vladimir Sudar (Pepperdine). Illinois twin towers Tomislav Ivisic and Zvonimir Ivisic are recent alums of SC Derby and the ABA.

Former UNC standout guard Marcus Paige, who’s now an assistant coach under Davis with the Tar Heels, played for Partizan, a Serbian club team, in the ABA from 2018-21. He averaged 12.3 points and 4.4 assists per game during his first season in the same league that produced Bogavac.

As for Bogavac’s grasp of the English language, Trimble said “it’s really good, actually,” with a wide smile acknowledging the learning curve involved.

“You can’t get too deep into your slang,” Trimble said. “He may not understand some things. You know ‘Gen Z,’ we’ve got a whole bunch of different slang, so we’ve got to be selective with that. But his English is really good. There’s no barriers or anything on the court with us.

“We had our first struggle (the other day), me and him. He was trying to explain something to me, and we didn’t have that much time to do it. And he said something very fast, and I told him I had zero idea what he said. So we spoke about it after practice, but otherwise it’s really good.”