Texas Tech basketball: Underrated players from the dark ages of the program
Dejan Kravic
Dejan Kravic was only a Red Raider for two years after transferring in from York College in Canada (which meant that he still had to redshirt). But while no one is ever going to mention those two years when writing the history of Texas Tech basketball, he proved to be more than just your run-of-the-mill 7-footer.
From 2012-14, the native of Ontario, Canada by way of Bosnia & Herzegovina averaged 8.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. Those are numbers that this past year’s Red Raider team would have loved to get from a 7-footer given how consistently overmatched that team was in the post.
The big man’s best year was his junior campaign when he averaged 9 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks. To put that in perspective, those numbers were slightly better across the board than T.J. Holyfield put up in 2019-20 and his block total would have led this season’s team.
True 7-footers have been rare for Texas Tech over the years. Thus, Kravic has to be one of the most productive of that group despite the fact that his career isn’t hall of fame worthy.
Having spent much of his youth playing in Europe, Kravic’s game was not like that of a typical North American 7-footer. He was comfortable handling the ball and was capable of creating off the dribble in addition to scoring with his back to the basket.
He also had excellent court vision for a big man and that was due to his upbringing as a player who played facing the rim. He was a skilled passer who in many ways played like fellow European Tony Kukoc, who starred with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s.
7-footers remain the most coveted prize in the game of basketball, even though what they are asked to do on the court is not the same as it was ten or twenty years ago. But just like defensive ends in football, landing a quality 7-footer is tough because every program in American lusts after them.
That’s why Tech was lucky to find a solid 7-footer playing in obscurity in Canada back in 2011-12. We just saw 7-foot Russell Tchewa transfer because he wasn’t a fit in Beard’s system given his limited skills with the basketball. That wouldn’t have been a problem for Dejan Kravic as he was a new-age big man who could do a little bit of everything on the floor.