Vrankovic sees interest spike
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It happens every recruiting cycle.
An under the radar big-man, who has low and/or mid-major offers but gets some high major recruiting letters, has an outstanding senior season in high school and he pops up on high-major radars, snagging an offer and generating even more high major interest. Such is the case with Pine Crest (Fla.) center Antonio Vrankovic.
Four weeks ago Vrankovic held offers from Charlotte, Florida Gulf Coast, San Francisco and LaSalle, plus had interest from Alabama-Birmingham, Alabama, Indiana, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Brown, Dartmouth and Yale -- Ivy League schools do not offer athletic scholarships.
Then on January 30, Georgia offered. Soon afterwards, interest from Duke began to become more serious for Vrankovic, who was recently measured at 6-foot-11½, without shoes, and tips the scale at 265 pounds.
Always considered a strong and skilled big man with a variety of post moves and high basketball IQ, we asked Vrankovic what he attributes the new level of interest from high-major programs.
"I got in much better shape," he said matter of factly. "I worked on my body. I just worked out here in the United States and when I went back to Croatia, I did the same thing. I watched what I ate and ate a lot of vegetables and a lot of fruit and just didn't eat as much sugar and other stuff."
Getting in better shape and getting used to his body translated to improved play in his crucial senior season. A season that Vrankovic was expected to carry the load, because Pine Crest was considered one of the younger teams in Florida's 4A classification.
And carry the load Vrankovic did.
For the season, Vrankovic averaged 27.4 points, 16.0 rebounds, 4.9 blocks, 3.1 assists and 0.8 steals per game. In the process, he tied the school's single-game scoring record when he dropped 55 points on Taravella High School. By the way, that scoring record he tied was set by Brandon Knight, who now plays in the NBA for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Even during the season, Vrankovic's continued improvement was noticeable.
"I can run better, I can move better, but that's because I lost weight," Vrankovic said. "That helped me from the start, getting in much better shape. Besides that, I think I improved my free throws a lot. I think I improved my offensive skill sets and just overall got much better this year. I'm much more confident with my game and that's helped me be a better player this year."
With his high school career behind him, Pine Crest was eliminated in the District playoffs, Vrankovic has been working with his father, Stojko who spent five seasons in the NBA, to keep his basketball skills sharp.
"He's my mentor and my teacher for everything for life and basketball," Vrankovic said. "He's been a professional basketball player for 21 years. Fortunately we play the same position, so he can help me out with my post moves and my defense on-ball and off-ball. It's really a blessing to have a father like that who can always help you out and show you what he knows. He's definitely influenced my game and helped me out."
Born in Minnesota when his father, Stojko Vrankovic, played for the Timberwolves, Antonio moved to Los Angeles for two years while his father played for the Clippers. He moved to Croatia in 1999 and returned to the United States three years ago.
Big men are always in demand, especially when the calendar turns to January and programs are still trying to finish their in-year recruiting. Vrankovic talked about the schools that he's hearing from the most.
"Right now since I got an offer from Georgia they're one of the schools that contacts me the most," Vrankovic said. "I'm also hearing from Duke a lot lately, Boston College reached out this week, Dartmouth, Yale, Brown and mid-major schools that have already offered me like San Francisco and LaSalle."
Yale and Boston College were scheduled to come to Pine Crest's Fort Lauderdale campus to meet with Vrankovic and watch him work out on Wednesday. However, Mother Nature had other plans -- another snow storm blanked the northeast resulting in several flight cancellations preventing the coaches from to get to the Sunshine State.
Vrankovic still has four of his allotted five official visits left to take. He used one official visit to San Francisco and took unofficial visits to Vanderbilt, Alabama, Notre Dame and Northwestern during a break in the last AAU travel season. Now that his basketball season is over, Vrankovic and his family have started to discuss scheduling official visits to schools.
"My dad and I talked about all the schools that are recruiting me," Vrankovic said. "I really want to go see Georgia because a lot of my friends go there and they told me that it's a great school, so I want to go see it and experience it for myself. But we need to get a date, so we're being patient until someone gives us a date. Georgia is definitely one of the schools I want to see."
When Georgia extended their offer to Vrankovic, it seem to come out of nowhere for most observers, but in reality the recruitment dates back a few years.
"With Georgia, it was a weird recruiting process," said Vrankovic. "In my first year of travel [AAU], they saw me play and started sending me recruiting letters. But they didn't talk to me until two months ago and then they started recruiting me hard. Then all of a sudden this offer came in."
Assistant coach Jonas Hayes has been the lead recruiter for Vrankovic.
"Coach Hayes, I've developed a good relationship with him," said Vrankovic. "I haven't had a chance to talk to the head coach. I was just waiting on the offer. Now hopefully I can go see the school on an official visit."
Then there's the school with the fourth-winningest college basketball program of all-time -- Duke.
Duke assistant Nate James came to watch Pine Crest in the annual multi-team basketball event that attracts schools in Florida and several states up the east coast and the Deep South.
"He came for the Kreul Classic and I think I had 26 in front of him, but he didn't think I was explosive enough or something so he stopped recruiting me for a while," said Vrankovic. "But he called back when he saw a couple of my other games and thought maybe that [first game] just wasn't one of my games. He's been calling me a lot and we'll see what happens. He's been talking to [Pine Crest assistant] Coach Ike [Smith] a lot and my dad. I have a pretty good relationship with Coach James.
How would a Duke offer affect Vrankovic's recruitment?
"It would definitely help my recruitment," Vrankovic said. "I think that offer from Georgia, a high major program like that -- a big SEC school, definitely helped my recruitment just because a big-time program realized my talent. So if they think I'm good enough to play for them, then other schools may think, 'Wow, this kid maybe can really play.' So I think Duke would do even more because that's one of the better basketball schools in history. So I think it would help my recruitment. Duke is also my dream school, so that would be great if they offered me."
Even with the sudden offer from Georgia, increased interest from Duke and Boston College establishing contact three days before my interview with him; Vrankovic seemed to be taking it all in stride and in no hurry to get visits scheduled or commit.
"Everyone wants to make a decision as soon as possible just to get that weight off their shoulders and I would love to do that, but I don't want to rush the process for no reason," he said. "I want to take my time and make the correct decision."
While he's not rushing the process could another high major program enter his recruitment with an offer? It stands to reason. At 6-foot-11 ½ and 265-pounds, it's difficult to go unnoticed.
Russ Wood is a basketball recruiting analyst for Rivals.com and Inside the Gators. You can click here to follow him on Twitter.
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