How a Serbian basketball MVP found his way to Connecticut prep school
THOMPSON — As he sat across a classroom table Monday at Marianapolis Prep, Luka Kulundzic explained exactly how he was getting home in an hour. He’d get a ride to Boston Logan International Airport for a transatlantic flight to Geneva, where he’d catch a connection to Belgrade, Serbia.
“My family will pick me up for the three-hour ride to Novi Pazar,” Kulundzic said.
Home for the holidays. “Yes,” the 6-oot-5 junior said, breaking into a smile. “Family and friends and my city. And then back to basketball.”
Kulundzic reminded us Christmas Day is celebrated on Jan. 7 in Serbia. He’s scheduled back at Marianapolis on Jan. 10, a day before the unbeaten Golden Knights resume their NEPSAC schedule.
How last season’s most valuable player and leading scorer in the Serbian Junior League ended up in the northeastern corner of Connecticut is an interesting story in itself.
First a little perspective. Nikola Jovic, who was taken 27th in the first round of the 2022 NBA draft, was the Serbian junior league MVP in 2021.
“We first heard about Luka through our girls soccer coach Esad Darman,” coach Tom DiColella said. “He’s from Bosnia. He put me in contact with Luka’s agent, said he’s a great young player.”
They connected at end of March over Zoom.
“What was really cool was when we started the meeting, it’s the first time we got to see Luka and the first thing that was revealed was a surprise.”
Kulundzic not only played for the Novi Pazar junior team, he would be bumped up to practice and play for the club’s senior pro team in the Basketball League of Serbia.
“One of his teammates turned out to be a Marianapolis 2013 alum,” DiColella said.
It was Michael Mallory, the two-time Division II All-American and all-time Southern Connecticut scorer, who played at Holy Cross-Waterbury and Marianapolis.
“Small world,” said DiColella, in his eighth year as coach. “When he heard Luka was interested, (Mallory) spoke really highly of the school. To have that coming into the Zoom call was kind of fate. Pretty amazing.”
“We were roommates sometimes,” Kulundzic said. “Michael said it was a really good school.”
One of the cool things about coaching at Marianapolis, DiColella said, is the cultural mix of local kids with a few internationals each year. DiColella runs down this season’s roster … Stephen Willand of Douglas, Mass., Rhodia Perry from New London, Dimetri Iafrate who went to La Salle in Providence.
“We’ve had players from Belgium, Turkey, Kazakh
stan,” DiColella said. “In addition to Luka this year, we have Filip Calis from the Czech Republic.”
Kulundzic’s admissions process was done virtually. The tour of the school, all of it. He arrived in August.
“One of the first things he said was, ‘In Serbia I don’t have a shooting machine. Living here (on campus), I can shoot almost every night.’ ”
The basketball shooting gun: Greatest invention since the refrigerator.
Although Luka studied English in school in Serbia, it has come a long way in a short time. One of the things that is helping the process is Marianapolis has a strong ESL (English as a Second Language) program.
“He expressed to me in the fall he was pretty homesick,” DiColella said. “It’s not an easy transition. He has made great strides. And the dorm kids all love him.”
He carries a 3.8 GPA, DiColella said. His father Dejan is a principal of a top primary school in Novi Pazar.
As we walk past a classroom, Kulundzic points and says, “Coach D’s class. He’s my math teacher.”
The numbers are a universal language.
“At first, for everybody, it is hard,” said Kulundzic, who began playing basketball at 5 and turned 18 last month. “Language is different. First month it was hard. But I don’t miss one day. And everybody is really good here about helping.”
When the Nuggets played the Celtics on Nov. 11, Kulundzic got tickets from NBA MVP Nikola Jokic through the international team’s coach. This summer, he’ll be playing for Serbia in the World Cup U-19.
“Luka has good size, a great shot, he takes it to the rim really well, rebounds real strong,” DiColella said. “He’s definitely eyecatching. A lot of AAU coaches are interested in having him play for their team this spring.
“But he’s playing in the junior World Cup. This is a new thing for me, too. Once school’s over in the spring he’s going back home.”
Dayton has come to Marianapolis to check out Kulundzic.
“Their evaluation is he is definitely a Division I player,” DiColella said. “And that he has a choice to slim down and become a wing or strengthen up and be a stretch 4. They thought the higher ceiling would be to slim down a bit, to get a little quicker to guard that position.
“After a successful year this year, I think recruiting will blow up more and more next year.”
DiColella has been playing Kulundzic at the 3.
Remember, the only American basketball games he has played are the four Marianapolis wins in the past month.
“In the first few games, it was definitely an adjustment as far as the speed,” DiColella said. “The last few games, he has shown he’s strong to the rim and getting to the free throw line. He’s figuring out the game, getting his rhythm.”
In each of the last two games he has had 14 points.
“I think the trajectory will keep on improving,” DiColella said. “He’s still learning to let the game come to him more. First game he rushed a 3 in like five seconds. He’s known as a sharpshooter so they were on him really tight. He goes to the rim, it’s an asset to set up his biggest asset. Defenders aren’t so high on closing him out.”
DiColella said there’s room for improvement, but he has been impressed with Kulundzic’s defense.
“A lot of people are like European guys aren’t known to defend, but he brings an intensity. In Europe they play ball screens differently. They go under a lot. Here we like to hedge. I thought it would be a really long process, but he has adjusted to it well.”
“The basketball is so different,” Kulundzic said. “My goal this year is to change from Euro to American basketball. It’s hard. The easiest part is in Europe before the game 60-90 minutes film room of other team. What’s going right. What’s left. In corner … here there’s lot more one on one. There are faster athletes. Practicing all the time and playing with the older players on the senior team in Serbia really helped me.”
There certainly is no shortage of Serbian professionals to pattern a game after and Kulundzic’s model is Bogdan Bogdanovic, the 6-6 sharpshooter of the Atlanta Hawks.
“Basketball is very big in Serbia,” he said. “We obviously had (Predrag) Stojakovic and (Vlade) Divac, really good players. But with Jokic NBA MVP two years in a row, everybody in my country loves basketball now.”