Posted on: Tuesday, August 21, 2001

UH Sports
UH signs 6-11 Yugoslavian

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

Better late than never, and better tall than short, the Hawai'i men's basketball team signed a 6-foot-11 player yesterday.

Milos Zivanovic, who is from Yugoslavia, will be a freshman at UH this upcoming season. He arrived in Honolulu for the first time last Friday, and will enroll in fall classes next week. He will be the tallest player on the UH roster, and will have four seasons of eligibility.

"We think he can help us right away," coach Riley Wallace said. "He's got size and he can shoot."

Zivanovic is 19 and weighs 225 pounds. He said he played both forward positions while growing up in the lower-club level basketball leagues in Yugoslavia.

He said he chose Hawai'i over Pittsburgh, Providence and San Diego, in part because fellow Yugoslavians Predrag Savovic and Bosko Radovic were on the Rainbow roster.

"I thought it would be easier for me to learn English and find the roads around the school with Bosko and Savo," Zivanovic said. "Plus, they are the WAC champions, and I like to be with winners."

Savovic and Radovic are currently under investigation by the NCAA because of their basketball histories in Yugoslavia. Both participated in tournaments with professional players, although neither received payment.

Zivanovic never reached that level of competition.

"I wasn't playing with professionals, or against professionals, and I didn't make any money playing (basketball)," he said.

Scott Rigot, the UH assistant coach who recruited Zivanovic, described him as "tall and talented; more of a perimeter player, but he can play the post, too, because he's got good pivoting skills."

When visiting the Stan Sheriff Center over the weekend, Zivanovic said he thought the 3-point line was "too close for me."

He is not related to former Rainbow Ales Zivanovic, who was from Slovenia.

Zivanovic is the fifth recruit to sign with UH this summer. That is the maximum allowed per season by the NCAA.