By Kostas Psimoulis

 

Blaz Mesicek is arguably considered one of the best young prospects in Slovenia sitting currently at the #20 spot in our '97 ranking. He put on excellent performances at the recent Division B European Championship in Sarajevo earning All-Tournament honors and finishing with 15.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists in just 27 minutes of play. A few months ago Mesicek finalized a transfer to Slovenian giant Union Olimpija earning the chance to play in a highly structured environment. Eurohopes contacted his former coach at KK Grosuplje, Peter Hojc, who was kind enough to offer his thoughts and personal experience with Blaz. Hojc was his coach for the last five years, basically when Blaz started playing basketball at the age of eleven until two months ago when he transferred to Union Olimpija. As he is saying to Eurohopes "as his coach I'm his biggest fan but on the other side his hardest critic as well", so let's continue with the interview:

Coach, can you give us a picture of Blaz from a physical standpoint (physical appearance, athleticism)?
Blaz is 1.95 cm (6'4") tall, has a wingspan wider than 2.00 cm (note: 2.03 according to Blaz himself). His father is over 2.00 cm tall, his mother also tall for a woman. So Blaz's development is far from over; he has no facial hair, he's not put on weight.. He is a little  over 70 kg. His biggest weakness right now may also become his biggest asset in the future. I'm talking about his physical growth and development. As far as U16 and U18 competition go he has no problem competing with older and stronger players. Blaz likes playing with contact, he was taught that way from day one. At the senior level players have about 15-25 kg more than him, because of that  he won't be able to perform on that level this year. But in about a year, when he will probably grow near 2 meters, and start to gain some weight, he will have no problem competing on that level. As I've said, it's hard to find  a player with that skinny frame that plays as much in contact as he does. As far as athleticism goes, he is fast for a shooting guard position, but not as fast as speedy point guards. Leaping ability will increase drastically in next two years but he has been dunking in traffic and on fast breaks since a year ago.

Can you talk about his offensive skills? I've noticed that he is a great shooter, isn't he?
Me and Blaz were practicing individually every day for the last 3 summers (not this year because he was with the national team); often twice a day. That, combined with seven practices a week he had through the season, he became really skilled with the ball. His ball handling is on a very high level; he has a quick first step and a lot of different moves to finish around the rim. As I've said before, he plays a lot in contact which leads to a lot of free throw attempts. His shooting touch is really nice, typical for a lefty. At practices he regularly shoots about 80-90 percent on shooting drills; he averaged about two made threes per game. So in my opinion it's hard to find a player who knows and likes to go and finish in traffic but also has a great shooting touch. Blaz does both of those things at the highest level.

As a passer, is he willing to make the right play? Has the mindset of a "do it all for the win" player? 
Blaz is an excellent passer when he drives to the basket and in PNR offense. He sees the big guy if he's open, also has a feeling of finding the open man on the perimeter. On fast breaks he needs to improve his passing when his playing the point guard position. He's a fighter, willing to do anything for a win. He was raised that way. In clutch moments he is willing to take over and do everything for the win.

On the defensive end, does Blaz have big potential at the next level? How good are his defensive fundamentals? Does he like to play defense or he is the type of guy who's going to make a living by scoring? 
I think Blaz has all the tools a player needs to be a good defender; quick feet, wingspan, enough toughness. He demonstrated that on a couple of occasions, stopping the best players form other clubs on club level games. Problem is that he didn't do that consistently, because he was dominating the game with his offense and because of his playing time (he sometimes played the whole 40 minutes). So, on-ball defensive fundamentals are good, team defense mentality needs to be improved because he was sometimes late on rotations, didn't box out .. etc.  But smart as he is, he will improve that at the next level. I'm sure he will recognize the importance of being a good defensive player. He won't be a defensive stopper, but his defense will be good enough.

Finally, I'd like to ask you about his potential. How do you think Blaz would develop in the future the time he fulfills his potential? 
I think if Blaz develops his potential he can be a euroleague and senior national team level player. I think he has everything needed to get there, a lot of coaches agree that he and Doncic are the most talented of our young players. Mentally I can say that he is a born winner, always wants to win no matter  what. He is a hard worker and his family is supporting him 100 percent with his career.

 

Twitter of the author: @Gus_bball

 

Photo: FIBA Europe / KSBiH