Following the steps to USA of other top European prospects like Przemek Karnowski (Gonzaga) Serbian Center Dusan Ristic (’95) has just committed to Arizona (NCAA). He joined Sunrise Christian Academy some weeks ago, landing in USA from Red Star (Belgrade). He is actually the fifth player of our 1995 generation, behind Croatian Mario Hezonja (FC Barcelona), Latvian Kristaps Porzingis (Cajasol Sevilla), Spanish Ilimane Diop (Laboral Kutxa) and Turkish Kenan Sipahi (Fenerbahce Ulker).

 

One year ago he made his last big performance, in this case in the prestigious NIJT of Belgrade. Ristic was selected the MVP after leading Red Star to the first position behind 18.6 points (63% FG), 9.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists in only 24 minutes. 

 

Kyle Lindsted, his coach at Sunrise Academy, talked to Kostas Psimoulis, Director of Scouting at Eurohopes: "Dusan is a tremendous talent! His size and skill are definitely elite for his age. Great hands and feet, excellent feel as far as passing goes as well. He will have to adjust to speed and physicality of the style played here. He is very bright and should adjust in time. He will have to make more power moves than he does now, most of what he does now is finesse and he needs to add some stronger moves to his game. We have good post players on our team, he is the biggest and offensively the best player we have. Defensively he will have to play harder. He will also have to work on his strength and athleticism. Weight lifting will help him a lot. I see no reason why he could not be an NBA prospect within a short time depending on his development the next couple years, but the future looks bright!".
 

Photo: CLH