The Wayne State College men’s basketball team welcomes six-foot nine transfer Roko Jurasovic to their already dominant roster. Jurasovic is a forward from Split, Croatia who played his first two years of collegiate basketball at Illinois Valley Community College. During his time at IVCC, Jurasovic was named All-Conference First Team and was Second Team All-NJCAA Academics.
Head Coach Jeff Kaminsky shared his experience when it came to finding out about Jurasovic and starting the recruiting process.
“We lost our top rebounder, Cody McCullough, who was a fifth-year senior,” Kaminsky said. “We knew rebounding was gonna be a big need for us. We didn’t quite have the high school recruit that could kind of fill that need right away. So honestly, I just figured we’d look at a transfer.”
Coach Kaminsky mentioned that he looked at the top rebounders of the Illinois Junior College system and saw that Jurasovic was one of the top rebounders. Kaminsky had no idea who he was but after seeing his stats he knew that he had to reach out to their head coach. Kaminsky also mentioned how he was invested in how versatile Jurasovic was on the court.
“He has a lot of mobility which fits our style of play more,” Kaminsky said. “We don’t really like the plotters. We like guys that are mobile and can switch defensively.”
Kaminsky and the rest of the men’s basketball coaching staff watched tape of Jurasovic but knew that they needed to see him in person. IVCC arranged an open gym for the coaching staff to come check him out and from that point on they knew they had to offer Jurasovic a spot on the team.
“We had another event in Chicago and then we went to see Roko at the open gym. Then when I left, there was when we decided that we would offer him,” Kaminsky said.
Jurasovic, being from Croatia, shared his experience of coming to the United States to play basketball. He first came to the U.S in his senior year of high school where he attended Tilton Prep School in New Hampshire.
“I think they (Tilton) did a great job welcoming us,” Jurasovic said. “They really helped us adjust to the whole American system and it was also a boarding school so it’s kind of a different experience living with different people, having a roommate, and stuff like that. So, I think that was really cool.”
Jurasovic then shared his thoughts and experiences during his recruiting process for WSC and shared how he really appreciated Kaminsky and the rest of the coaching staff for making time to attend the open gym to watch him in action. He mentioned how the fact that the coaching staff drove seven hours to watch him showed how much Kaminsky cared about him.
“I think they did a great job, like, showing me they really care,” Jurasovic said. “When they were recruiting me, they drove from here all the way to Illinois, so it was like a seven-hour drive and they, kind of showed me how much they really cared about me. So, I think that was also important to me.”
Jurasovic also talked about the team as a whole and really appreciated the team’s chemistry, which was another factor that really stood out to him. Having the chemistry that this team has really made it easy for him to choose WSC over other schools.
“We kind of all have different personalities but we kind of fulfill each other so I think we all have a really good chemistry which is cool,” Jurasovic said.
Jurasovic mentioned that he is really excited to start this season with the men’s basketball team and looks forward to being the best he can be to help out the team the best he can.
WSC’s men’s basketball season begins on Friday, November 14 in the Missouri Western Classic against Emporia State. They then will begin their regular season on Monday, November 17 against Manhattan Christian in Rice Auditorium.
