BOISE, Idaho – University of the Pacific men’s basketball coach Bob Thomason said he wants to find the best players possible, and he doesn’t care where they come from.
That’s for sure.
Thomason has filled his Tigers roster with players from five different countries. In fact, four of his starters were born outside the United States. Center Guillaume Yango is from France, forward Christian Maraker is from Sweden, forward Jasko Korajkic is Bosnian but grew up in Sweden and guard Marko Mihailovic is from Yugoslavia.
“It’s just dumb luck, I guess,” Thomason said.
Thomason got Maraker when he took Pacific on a tour of Sweden four years ago. His team played Maraker’s and he liked what he saw.
“He was 7-for-7 against us,” Thomason said. “We watched film of the game and we said that guy could be pretty good. So we offered him a scholarship.”
Thomason got a bonus, too. Korajkic was Maraker’s best friend, and Maraker told Thomason about him. Korajkic then got a scholarship too.
Similarities? Pacific and Washington don’t have any common opponents to compare. Thomason and Korajkic said the Huskies remind them of Cal State Northridge.
“(Northridge) have really quick guards too,” Korajkic said. “And they pressure the ball a lot too.”
“Northridge changes defenses more than Washington does,” Thomason said. “And obviously Northridge doesn’t have as good a players. But they do have a relentless style of play.”
Washington coach Lorenzo Romar and his players say Pacific doesn’t remind them of any team they’ve played this year.
“They have their own mix,” Will Conroy said. “This is one team that doesn’t resemble any team we’ve played. They have four or five guys that are tall, that can make plays and that are tough.”
Romar said Pacific may be a combination of Stanford’s tempo and Oregon State’s big men.
Following the blue print: Thomason said that he’s trying to model his program after Gonzaga. There are definite similarities: Both are schools from mid-major conferences who have found success on a national level.
“They do a tremendous job,” Thomason said. “They’ve done a great job of not only recruiting great players, but everything they do, they do at a high level. At the time they started getting exposure, Washington and Washington State weren’t that good so they dominated the state. They’ve got such a strong name now. That’s the ideal for a mid-level team to strive to be that.”
Wanna play? As Pacific has gained more and more success outside of the Big West, Thomason said it’s become more and more difficult to schedule non-conference games.
“It’s not difficult to schedule games at their places sometimes,” Thomas said. “There are some teams, Pac-10 teams, that won’t even play us at their place for guarantee games. I guess that’s respect, but it doesn’t help us build our schedule.”
Pacific did play at Kansas and Nevada this season, and had home games against Santa Clara and UTEP. But Big West Player of the Year David Doubley said having a game the caliber of today is one of the few chances Pacific has to show what it can do on a national level.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to show how good we are against a high-caliber school,” Doubley said. “We don’t get to play too many teams of this level, for whatever reason. We’re a mid-major school and a lot of major schools won’t give us the opportunity. Since we have this opportunity now, we want to take advantage of it and hopefully down the line more and more major schools will want to play us.”
Long-distance king: Tre Simmons tied the UW single-season record for 3-pointers (75) on Saturday. His next three would move him past Deon Luton, who set the record in 1998.
This and that: If Washington beats Pacific today, it will give the Huskies 29 wins, tying the UW single-season record for victories set in 1938. … Romar won his 150th career game Thursday. … If the Huskies win today, they will move to .500 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. Washington is currently 11-12. … Washington is five assists short of breaking the school’s single-season record of 633, set in 1976. … Washington is 4-1 all-time against Pacific, having won four in a row. The last meeting was on Dec. 29, 1993, a 57-45 UW win.
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