When Florida landed Serbian prospect Viktor Mikic it was seen as somewhat of a flyer at a position, center, where you can always use more depth. After starting his career in his home country of Serbia he came to America to play at powerhouse high school Hamilton Heights in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a program not only known for their quality of development but for their pedigree of international players. Despite his excellent size and solid fundamentals he never really got recruited at the level you might expect, and since he was still available late the Gators added him to the rotation where he could compete with a lot of talented frontcourt options.
With the Gators having such a deep frontcourt, Mikic wasn’t expected to see much time on the court, and his freshman season saw him get a cumulative 7 minutes of garbage time action in non-conference play. Because of this, fans haven’t yet had an opportunity to see Mikic in action and haven’t yet seen how he is as a player.
For that reason, it was notable when Mikic made the Serbian U20 team that was headed to Heraklion, Greece for the European U20 Championship–a highly competitive event that sees a lot of future high-major and professional talent playing hard for their nations. This was a chance for Mikic not only to get on the court and play a bunch of minutes after not seeing the floor for the Gators, but to do it in games of consequence. For Florida fans, it offered a chance to see where Mikic is at in his development.
To set the scene, let’s start by working backwards and talking about how Serbia did as a team. It was a successful tournament for them finishing 4th, falling in the bronze medal game to France who was expected to compete for gold. Now that we’ve established it was an excellent performance by Serbia, we can talk about how Mikic played a key role.
In seven games (which is another great part of this event–there is a lot of games and a lot of opportunity for players to play and showcase their abilities) Mikic averaged:
20.4 Minutes
10.0 Points
5.4 Rebounds
1.6 Assists
1.1 Blocks
57% Field Goal
64% Free Throw
As you can see–it was a tremendous showing for Mikic who didn’t just put up solid counting stats, but did it while looking good. From a physical standpoint Mikic looked to be in excellent shape and competed with a high motor for 20 minutes a game, something you might not be sure he’d be able to do after not seeing game action for about a year. When it came to pure physicality and muscle he was assertive on the inside, pushing around players of similar height and weight that should have been able to battle the similar-sized Mikic to a draw. As you can tell from the field goal percentage Mikic was finishing a lot of his opportunities around the rim, something that speaks to his size and also his confidence and touch. While he would have liked to have shot his free throws at a slightly higher level, he did average 4 attempts per game and going to the line multiple times per game also showed just how much opposing centers were struggling with him.
Defensively Mikic also showed a lot of mobility moving side to side and an excellent sense of timing for blocking shots. Serbia had a number of offensively talented frontcourt players making it quite a competition for minutes, and it seemed like it was Mikic’s defense that was the biggest part of getting him on the floor so much. For the defensive side of the game to be such a positive for Mikic while he was able to also score 10 points per game on the other end says a lot about just how good the showing was.
Ultimately, I’m not sure the European U20 Championship could have gone much better for Mikic. He looked like a mature player that was awfully polished for someone who wasn’t able to play much last season, and he was productive on both ends of the floor against a high level of competition in games that really mattered. Since Florida didn’t lose any frontcourt players from a year ago it will once again be a massive challenge for Mikic to get on the floor, but he absolutely looks like someone capable of contributing at the SEC level and it looks like the Gators have some more frontcourt depth locked and loaded for when they need it.