There is more to being a part of the Northwestern basketball team than simple statistics. Becoming a Wildcat means joining a family as close as the one sitting at your dining room table. Assistant Coach Ivan Vujic makes sure of that – especially if you’re coming from overseas.
Vujic, in his fourth season at Northwestern, is a native of Split, Croatia.
“I had a full experience as a basketball player coming from overseas,” he says.
Vujic played for the Croatian national team in 1995 before he came to the United States. He played basketball for two years at a junior college before joining the team at Valparaiso University in Indiana from 1998 to 2000. He then played professionally in Europe and attended some NBA tryouts, but ultimately ended up coaching a year of high school basketball in Europe before joining Northwestern as an assistant coach in 2008.
At Northwestern, Vujic is unofficially in charge of international recruiting, but he is careful to emphasize that recruiting new athletes is a group effort by the entire coaching staff. The recruiting process is not just about luring the best athletes, he says, but about finding student athletes who mesh best with the atmosphere of Wildcat basketball.
“They’re going to fit academically, they’re going to fit basketball-wise and they’re going to fit the Northwestern culture,” he says.
That culture includes an affinity for foreign-born athletes. Vedran Vukusic and Ivan Tolic, two of Northwestern’s most successful athletes, were international players. Vujic says that Northwestern has consistently had a good tradition with foreign athletes because, quite simply, they fit well on the court.
“The games here are much faster, more athletic, and over there [in Europe] it’s more about a skills game,” he says. “That goes in our favor because the Princeton offense uses a player’s skill set to the maximum.”
This year, Northwestern received verbal commitments from two international prospects, Alexandru Olah from Romania and Milos Kostic from Serbia. Vujic was involved in the recruiting process for both players. The ‘Cats also added Nikola Cerina, originally from Serbia, as a transfer from Texas Christian University.
“He felt comfortable,” says Vujic of Cerina. “We want to recruit kids that feel comfortable with every single thing here. If they’re comfortable, they’ll be happy and they can perform better.”
As a result, Vujic takes an active approach to ensure his international prospects feel welcomed. He takes care to point out all that the city of Chicago has to offer an international player.
“There’s a Romanian community – a Romanian restaurant, Romanian concerts,” Vujic says. There are even places for worship in their native language. Vujic himself attends the Croatian church on 31st Street whenever he has a free Sunday. Moreover, the metropolitan nature of Chicago makes it easy for the athletes to get home, he says, with direct flights to several cities in Europe.
Vujic also recognizes the important role parents play. He speaks several languages and by communicating with parents in a familiar way, he demonstrates the welcoming environment at Northwestern.
“When you call a player and talk to his parents and you speak in their language, they feel really comfortable,” Vujic says. “They want to make sure their kid is going to a good place.”
Additionally, Vujic knows the value of academic success. “For a lot of international kids, school is important,” he says. “Eventually you might get hurt and then you’re going to have to bounce back on something – which is a college degree.”
As a man who lived what many of his prospects are facing, Vujic knows how to bridge the gap in both daily life and life on the court. He acknowledges that many international prospects may feel more comfortable when they deal with him as opposed to someone else, probably because of his ability to both effectively communicate with players and their families and to empathize with their experiences.
His efforts have proved fruitful for the program. For the past three years, Northwestern has qualified for the National Invitation Tournament, having done so only three times prior since the NIT was founded in 1938. Although the team still has yet to reach the NCAA tournament, the three consecutive years of playoff appearances mark significant progress for Wildcat basketball, especially with the ‘Cats reaching the NIT quarterfinals this past year.
While he stays modest, Vujic knows his work has made a difference. “We started playing good when I got here, I guess, whatever that means.”