Good Morning, Illini Nation: Emphasizing defense
- Story byThe News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
- Good Morning, Illini Nation: Emphasizing defense
Aug. 2—Zvonimir Ivisic is considered the more defensive minded of Illinois' twin centers. For a reason. The 7-foot-2 Croatian averaged a team-high 1.9 blocks last season, and his block percentage ranked fourth nationally, per Bart Torvik, behind only Virginia's Ugonna Onyenso, Seton Hall's Najai Hines and Charleston's Chol Machot.
That's not to say Tomislav Ivisic didn't contribute defensively. The 7-1 center was certainly more of an offensive threat and his defensive rating went down from his first season in Champaign, but he still came out on the positive side of plus/minus at the defensive end of the court for the season.
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Ratcheting up his defensive versatility has been an offseason goal for Tomislav Ivisic. It's arguably his primary goal.
"I want to be a better defender," he said. "To be able to hope (defensive coordinator Camryn Crocker) have more variety on the defensive end. If he thinks maybe for one game it would be best to switch, and if I'm not ready to switch, then we can't play switch. I'm trying to be a better defender on that end.
"That all starts with small details like having hip mobility, hamstring and quad stretch, a little bit of balance. Small stuff that we do every day and that we've been working on since the season was over. I definitely feel improvement there. I also gained some weight. Which should slow me down, but that's why we work on extra stuff to not slow me down and improve my mobility and agility."
