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As he gets comfortable, Ohio State's Mathieu Grujicic ready for chance to impress as freshman
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- As he gets comfortable, Ohio State's Mathieu Grujicic ready for chance to impress as freshman
Mathieu Grujicic couldn't let the chuckle of a nearby teammate go unchecked.
The Ohio State men's basketball team was a little more than a week into preseason practice when they held their media day , and the international freshman was seated at a table with Santa Clara senior transfer Christoph Tilly. The 6-foot-6, 205-pound guard/forward was asked where he is working to improve his game.
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It's a standard preseason question, and Grujicic said he felt his short time at Ohio State had already yielded some gains.
"Technically I feel like I've improved since I got here," he said. "My jump shot has been way more automatic."
As Grujicic continued, Tilly let out a good-natured laugh that derailed the freshman's line of thought. No explanation was forthcoming from the 7-foot, 240-pound center as to why he had reacted that way, and Grujicic feigned bemusement at the interaction.
"I don't know why he was laughing," Grujicic said. "He was looking at something on his phone, because ain't no way he was laughing at what I said. Ain't no way."
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Chalk it up to some friendly banter between teammates but also consider it a sign that the high scoring Grujicic is already feeling at home in Columbus. That's no small feat given the multi-country road that led him to the Buckeyes.
Born in France, Grujicic said his family moved to Berlin, Germany, in 2012. (German is one of the five languages he can speak fluently or nearly fluently. French, English, Catalan and Serbian are the others.) Three or four years after moving to Germany, Grujicic said his father signed him up for a basketball academy because he was so much taller than the other kids at his age.
Ohio State's Mathieu Grujicic walks through the practice gym at the Jerome Schottenstein Center on June 16.
He arrived at Ohio State this summer after an accomplished youth career in Germany and in Spain, where he played for FC Barcelona's U18 team. He joined the Buckeyes for most of the summer but hadn't enrolled early enough to be part of official team practices.
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"It was a little tough knowing that this was my team, the team I'm going to play for, and not being able to practice," Grujicic said. "That was the first time, but it was still an easy adjustment with all the teammates and coaches embracing me. I was still able to embrace the culture, embrace the team chemistry."
He left the Buckeyes in July, averaged a tournament-best 24.6 points per game while playing for Germany in the FIBA U18 EuroBasket competition and, as of the start of fall semester, is now a full participant in practice.
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With his blend of size and scoring ability, Grujicic projects as a rotational guard or wing. In practice, Grujicic said he spends a lot of time lining up against junior small forward Devin Royal. At other times, he's been matched up against senior guard Bruce Thornton, sophomore guard John Mobley Jr. or redshirt sophomore guard Gabe Cupps.
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Grujicic boasts significant international experience, and he's working to acclimate to the college game.
"I think the biggest difference is not necessarily the play style but the play speed," he said. "We do play very fast, and also considering the fact that I was playing in Spain, which is one of the countries that plays the fastest basketball, knowing this year is a lot faster than it was in Spain."
Coach Jake Diebler said that yielded some struggles in the opening days of practice, but Grujicic has been making up for lost time since then.
"It's certainly a different game than he's used to overseas, which he played really well at the U18s but you've got older guys and guys with experience," Diebler said. "I've been really impressed with how much he's improved in understanding what we're doing, limiting some of those turnovers he's had in the first days of practice and becoming more efficient."
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In 2025 alone, Grujicic was named the most valuable player at four different events: the Adidas Next Generation Tournament, the NBA Basketball Without Borders Europe Camp, the U18 Spain Domestic Championship and Catalon Championships.
How much Grujicic is able to handle as a freshman won't be known for a while, but he's fine with beginning the season as an unknown commodity.
"I think I can surprise a lot of people that don't have me on their plate yet," he said. "I'm definitely planning on getting minutes this year and helping the team out in big games, for sure."
As he said it, this time he was clearly not joking.
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Ohio State men's basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @ cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @ AdamJardy .
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Experienced Mathieu Grujicic ready to make freshman impact at Ohio State
