Mid-Majors Take Peek At Dragutin Kravic
Dragutin Kravic, a 6-8, 200-pound senior shooting guard from the Dwight High School in New York City, averaged 32 points, 14 rebounds, and eight assists last year for coach Alex Kiprovski.
A relative unknown who only came to the United States a year ago from the former Yugoslavia, Kravic has seen interest from Rider, American, Lafayette, Colgate, Columbia, Princeton, and St. Francis(NY).
Advertisement
Rider and a few other schools sent coaches to watch Kravic work out during the last contact period.
After seeing Kravic at two workouts, Rider head coach Don Harnum offered Kravic a
scholarship on the spot. According to Kiprovski, who played professionally
in the former Yugoslavia and was a member of the Yugoslavian junior national team,
"He's a very good three-point shooter. He can hit NBA threes easily. But his biggest strength is his vision. He can find you anywhere on the court. I would compare him as a player to Toni Kukoc, who I played
with in Yugoslavia. He's that type of player: an excellent passer who is very elegant and graceful on the court. Except he's more intense, more aggressive."
Kiprovski notes that Kravic is a mult-skilled player capable of playing three different positions,
"He can play the two, three, or the four. He handles the ball well as a shooting guard, and he can pass it like a point guard at times. Last year he scored 32 points a game, and he was being unselfish. He looks to
pass. This year he has to be more selfish."
Kiprovski reports that not only does Kravic have considerable physical talents, but the versatile big man has a puritan-like work ethic and a gym rat's mentality,
"He is a very hard worker. He reminds me a lot of Drazen Petrovic(with his work ethic). He's always in the gym.
"He's also very coachable. That's the most important thing. If you tell him to go work out for six hours, he won't stop until you tell him to."
Kravic has a sturdy frame, and if his family background is any indicator, will probably sprout up a couple of more inches.
"His father and his brother are both close to seven feet," said Kiprovski. "Doctors say he will grow to 6-10. He's very solidly built. He's already got very
strong legs."
Kravic reportedly runs the floor well and is a good leaper. Kravic has over a 90 average and scored 1000 on the SAT the first time he took it. He just took the test
again on October 13th.
"He should do much better on the test this
time(because he has adjusted to the language
differences)," said Kiprovski.
Kravic is looking to study architecture at college. He will make a late decision.
Kravic has offers from American, Rider, St.
Francis(NY), and Lafayette. He hasn't set up any visits yet. He may visit American
in the future.
Kravic is a high post player who is comfortable on the perimeter. He reportedly is not very comfotable with physical contact at this point, and needs to fill out. His coach stressed that they haven't been working
very hard with him with weights so far because he is so young.