Below is the link to Eric Fawcett's article announcing and evaluating Viktor Mikic. Based on Eric's analysis, I think some of us are sleeping on Mikic. He didn't play, because why would he play given our depth at the 4 and 5? Some have forgotten that fact when they assume that since he did not play, he must not be very good. Well...he's not in the portal, which means we did not run him off, so we must continue to think he has value, which is backed up by the reality that we will really need bigs the year after this coming season. Some excerpts (which contain almost all of the facts in the article): "Where Mikic really started to get buzz was at the Adidas Next Generation tournament, an event featuring some of the top young players in Europe. In two summers playing in this key recruiting event, Mikic turned heads with his great size and production averaging 12.7 points and 8.4 rebounds while impacting the defensive end with his rim protection." "As a player, Mikic possesses great size and will not be out of place in the SEC at 6’11” and 235 pounds (now 250). Not only does he have true big man size, but he embraces the types of things you need from a center–physicality, toughness, and motor. Mikic takes tremendous pride in his ability to rebound the ball on both ends, and considering Florida’s reliance on offensive rebounding, Mikic is going to fit in just fine. Offensively he’s someone who can take a smaller defender on the block and use his size to get to efficient hook shots, but he might be even better as a passer who can see the whole floor and find cutters or open shooters when a double team occurs." "From a roster value standpoint, this is a tremendous get for the Gators. Centers are still one of the hardest player archetypes to land, and if you followed the transfer portal at all you’ll know that any half decent center from the mid-major level commanded massive attention and was a difficult recruitment. While Mikic won’t be relied on to play a huge role right away, he has the size, skill, and experience to transition to the SEC right away..." Gators Land ’24 Serbian Center Viktor Mikic | GatorCountry.com
Can he play the four? I really like his film but he looks like a 5. We don't really need three centers. Handy and Chinny at the 5, Condo and Micic at the 4, Haugh and Brown at the 3, Brown and Klavzar at the 2 and Lee and Portal at the 1 gives us a solid 10 players, with the ability to move some bigs around if there are injuries. Last year we played 4 guards and four bigs down the stretch but we may have more depth this coming year. Denzel would have fit in perfectly floating between a 1 and 2 as needed. Need another Zel. Big drop off to Klavzar, who is the only other guy on the team that could probably do that.
I would love to return to the strong bench we had this year that played a giant role in our ability to wear teams down in the 2nd half. You may not easily see this because college players don’t usually put their hands on their hips when they are gassed. But, their intensity drops off dramatically along with their shooting and defense. Games I can think off where our opponents were gassed include: All 6 NCAA games Georgia Arkansas LSU Tennessee Ole Miss in SEC Auburn in SEC I’m sure many others, maybe most.
Probably had something to do with the comeback against USC on the road. Most teams can hike down and play tough defense for a half. Not many can do it for two halves, which is why I think we dominated in the second half. With our depth we could play defense in the second half just like the first. Hopefully next year will be more of the same.
