FEATURE: From Croatia to Lubbock – A journey across the sea for the love of basketball

July 16, 2024 | Women's Basketball

By: Casey Montalvo

For Ivana Krajina, basketball had been a part of her life for as long as she could remember. Her entire family, and even some close family friends, played the sport in some capacity. Ivana, who at this point of her life, was an up-and-coming handball prodigy, but the allure of basketball continued to consume her thoughts. She started going to her friends’ basketball practices, realizing that basketball was unlike any sport she had ever tried.

So she decided to give it a chance.

At the same time, her cousin Marija Pacar, who is about 10 years older than Ivana, had already moved across the world to pursue a collegiate basketball career at Tallahassee Community College before finishing her tenure at Wichita State. After her time as a student-athlete, former head coach Franqua “Coach Q” Bedell asked Marija to join his coaching staff as an assistant for the Wranglers in Odessa.

“She was my role model when I was a kid,” Ivana said of Marija. “So ever since I got into basketball, I was like, ‘I'm going to do the same thing. I'm going to go to United States and I'm going to play basketball like she did.’”

Marija helped Ivana with her plan – telling her all about Odessa College, the town, the climate and more. Even giving her the low-down on city life.

“My cousin said it's a desert out there and that there's nothing much to do. She said I’m here to play basketball anyway,” Ivana said. “Marija was like, ‘Do you still want this?’ You don't need to look for any other schools. You don't need to post your highlights or do any of that stuff. You have already a school.’ And so I thought, that's what I'm going to do. There wasn't that much thinking about it. That's how I ended up in Odessa.”

Originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ivana didn’t start thinking that basketball could be something she may have a future in until she was about 15 years old. About that same time was when she first received an invitation to play for the national team, packing up and moving across the country to Croatia – about a six-hour drive from her home in Bosnia.

“After my first invite and my first summer with the national team, I was cut in the last round,” she said. “My coach from the national team then invited me to play for his club team in Croatia. So, that's how I ended up living there. I moved away from home when I was 15 and I was there for four years. That's when I really realized this is what I'm going to do.”

Spending her freshman and sophomore seasons at Odessa, Ivana would have a breakout second year in which she was named a NJCAA Division I First Team All-American, an All-Region 5 Team honoree and the WJCAC Player of the Year after averaging 18.1 points per game, 4.2 rebounds per game and 4.0 assists per game and helping the Lady Wranglers to their first national tournament appearance since 2019.

“I would say this past season was, for me, the best season of basketball that I've ever played,” Ivana added. “When it came to my teammates and coaches, I really loved everyone there and I know I can reach out to them. We really connected as friends and sisters, and pushed each other through, and that's why we had such a great season.”

Ivana and one of her newly found sisters, Sarengbe Sanogo, also known as Sara, will be reunited in Lubbock as Sara signed with the Lady Raiders in May. The two of them made each other better at Odessa, both leaving there as All-Americans and with major conference recognition.

“I was super excited [when Sara signed]. Knowing that I'll have somebody familiar here and somebody that I already played with is going to make the game so much easier,” Ivana said. “I just think she's an amazing player. She’s really athletic and she has all these abilities that she's going to bring to this team. I was just really excited because I love her.”

Sara was able to push Ivana out of her comfort zone, especially on the mental side of things, to better understand her teammates from a communication standpoint.

“I feel like she helped me a lot to figure out that not every teammate I have is the same, and not every teammate that I have will react to the same thing,” Ivana added. “So, she really helped me on that part, to understand how I can't really talk to everyone in the same way. I can't really expect the same things from everyone. So, that's what I really appreciate about her.”

After Ivana’s breakout season, her recruitment opened up once more, where she immediately got a call from the Lady Raider coaching staff, specifically Coach Erik DeRoo, to come and visit.

“When I met all the coaches, I was talking mostly with Coach DeRoo and he's one of the biggest reasons why I'm here,” Ivana said. “The way he recruited me, honestly, was the best out of all the other people who were trying to recruit me. And, when I came on an official visit here, I just realized I loved the atmosphere, I loved all the coaches, all the energy. It's just good people around here. So, that's one of my biggest reasons why I came here.”

Ivana and Coach DeRoo quickly established a relationship built on trust. She knew Coach DeRoo was someone who she could talk to easily about how to get better on the court and what she needed to do in order to execute that.

“He kind of met me enough on a personal level where I wanted his feedback – He would let me know what I needed to do better, what I could fix and how I could put my teammates in better positions. He made enough of a good relationship in recruiting with me so that he could tell me these things. That's one thing I really loved about him. And even now, after every practice I'm like, ‘Give me some feedback. Give me something here.’ That's one thing that really made me come here – the trust, probably,” she said.

Ivana’s style of play is heavy on the mid-range shot sprinkled with some unselfishness and a lot of defense, which is something the Lady Raiders do well. She enjoys making the game quicker and going up-and-down the court looking to pass the ball to a teammate so they can score. Her mid-range shot can appear anywhere on the court and in any form and her defense is something she takes pride in. She even learned how to become more of a vocal leader in games, which is something not everyone does in Croatia.

“When I came to the states, I was really quiet,” Ivana said. “I was not going to talk. My coach could not make me. In Europe, we don't talk – everyone knows what they're supposed to do. We don't need to tell anyone. But then as I came here, I realized how much easier it is when you talk your teammates through, especially as a point guard, and how much easier the game flows. I would say that's one of the biggest, like, leaps that I took from my first to second year in United States. I became really loud on the court.”

This can kind of be said for how Europe and the United State are culturally different, as Ivana notes the people in America are much more welcoming and wants to talk with you. Whereas in Europe, people tend to keep to themselves, especially if they don’t know who you are.

“Everyone here wants to know about your day. While at home, we just go about our day and we just do our own thing. So that was a big shock to me,” she said.

While in Odessa, Ivana sometimes got a taste of home when her cousin Marija would cook up some of her favorite Croatian foods.

“Whenever Marija had enough time to cook, she would make sure to get me some. She would even make me my favorite dishes. There's this one dish called Zeljanica. It’s basically spinach rolled into a dough and is kind of like a pie. That’s what she would make for me while I was there.”

Now living in Lubbock and getting to know her coaches, staff and teammates, Ivana embraces her journey from Croatia to West Texas and is fitting right in just fine.

“I love the energy. I think we have something special here, and I think we have all the right pieces. It's going to be a fun season,” Ivana added.