{"id":116266,"date":"2025-08-03T18:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T18:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116266\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T18:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T18:41:10","slug":"takeaways-from-the-addition-of-ivan-matlekovic-to-the-unc-basketball-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116266\/","title":{"rendered":"Takeaways from the addition of Ivan Matlekovic to the UNC basketball roster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/13183126.jpg\"\/> (Photo: Ivan Matlekovic, 247Sports)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/college\/north-carolina\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">North Carolina<\/a><\/b> has added another piece to the 2025-26 roster late in the game.\u00a0\u00a0 The announcement came Thursday night that <b><a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/Player\/ivan-matlekovic-46160538\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ivan Matlekovic<\/a><\/b> will be joining the Tar Heels.<\/p>\n<p>The seven-foot center out of Croatia will make the short trip from <b><a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/college\/high-point\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">High Point<\/a><\/b> to Chapel Hill after one year with the Panthers.\u00a0 He appeared in five games as a freshman where he averaged 2.6 points and 1.8 rebounds in five games.\u00a0 He did block four shots in 31 total minutes of play for the season.<\/p>\n<p>He has played in the Croatian Basketball League for HAKK Mladost.\u00a0 The big man also was a part of the Croatian national team, playing in the 2022 FIBA U18 European Championship where he averaged 1.6 points and 1.2 rebounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So what are we to make of Matelkovic and his addition just days before the fall semester begins?\u00a0 We have several thoughts to share.\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The addition of Matlekovic is a low risk move for the upcoming season. He is the 13th member of the roster, so he is an extra piece for Hubert Davis to have.\u00a0 If it isn&#8217;t able to make valuable contributions in games it is no great loss.\u00a0 Coach Davis has done this before to a degree with players like Justin McKoy and Ty Claude.<\/li>\n<li>You can never have too many post players. That was the Dean Smith philosophy.\u00a0 Matlekovic may not seem like a major impact type of transfer, but he could still make contributions.\u00a0 Going up against a big man in the seven-foot range in practice every day may help UNC&#8217;s current post players adjust to size.\u00a0 There aren&#8217;t a lot of individuals that tall walking down the street.\u00a0 The Tar Heels also currently have post depth, but injuries or other things can quickly change things.\u00a0 Fans should probably hope he doesn&#8217;t get called on to do too much, but he is there if need be.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Matlekovic is low risk in the long term. The basic feel for Matelkovic seems to be if he pans out then it is a win\/win.\u00a0 If he doesn&#8217;t contribute to winning on the floor then it was not a reckless gamble.\u00a0 Henri Veesaar and Caleb Wilson have more pressure to make their mark.<\/li>\n<li>Matlekovic is a project. His numbers both in FIBA and at High Point prove that.\u00a0 He is not highly touted.\u00a0 One number that sticks out is his age.\u00a0 He will turn 21 in October, so he is not a pup.\u00a0 If he was 18 we would have a different story.\u00a0 But instead he is as old as many college juniors and seniors.\u00a0 He isn&#8217;t a teenager with a high ceiling.\u00a0 The coaching staff will be putting in the work on his development.<\/li>\n<li>This is another example of the college sports landscape in 2025. UNC is also still waiting to officially add Luka Bogavac.\u00a0 More high school seniors are waiting until the late winter or spring to commit, so they can get a better grasp on the upcoming rosters.\u00a0 However, a clear window is coming later and later with each passing year.\u00a0 Not only is there the transfer portal to take into account, but an increasing number of international players who once would have played professionally overseas can now make more money in the collegiate ranks due to NIL.\u00a0 Many of them go well into the summer before getting all of the obstacles out of the way to play in the states.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Matlekovic will be joined in the frontcourt this season by\u00a0 Veesaar,\u00a0 a seven-footer, who transferred from\u00a0<b><a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/college\/arizona\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Arizona<\/a><\/b> who averaged 9.4 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks as a sophomore.\u00a0\u00a0It will be a shock if Wilson will not be the starting four as a freshman.\u00a0\u00a0Jarin Stevenson\u00a0will also spend some time at the four as well as the small forward spot.\u00a0 The 6-foot-11 junior spent his last two years at Alabama.\u00a0 6-10 sophomore James\u00a0<b><a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/college\/brown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brown<\/a><\/b>\u00a0will be returning for his sophomore campaign after playing sparingly last season.\u00a0\u00a0<b><a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/Player\/zayden-high-46115270\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Zayden High<\/a><\/b> will be returning after last playing in the 2023-24 campaign, but did not play last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Photo: Ivan Matlekovic, 247Sports) \u00a0 \u00a0 North Carolina has added another piece to the 2025-26 roster late in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":116267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-116266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114966304316109314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}