Marinkovic the latest teen sensation in Belgrade

BELGRADE (Eurocup/Adriatic League) - If winning games is the only thing that matters, this has not been a good season for Partizan Belgrade.

Having failed earlier this year to qualify for the Turkish Airlines Euroleague, the Serbian giants are in the Eurocup and so far, the team has just one victory in five games.

In the Adriatic League, Partizan have fared better but at 4-4, Dusko Vujosevic’s squad is clearly not the all-conquering outfit that people have grown accustomed to seeing over the years.

What has happened at the club that must be reassuring for the passionate fan base is that another fine young talent has jumped into the limelight.

His name is Vanja Marinkovic.

Those who paid attention to Serbia’ youth teams this summer will known Marinkovic because the 1.95m shooting guard played at the U18 European Championship in Turkey and the FIBA U17 World Championship in Dubai.

He was a key player in both tournaments, helping Serbia reach the podium at each.

Now, with Partizan struggling for wins, veteran coach Dusko Vujosevic has not only decided to play Marinkovic but to turn him loose.

In a home game against MZT Skopje in the Adriatic League on 8 November, Marinkovic exploded for a game-high 20 points and Partizan won, 65-50.

The 17-year-old drilled four of his seven shots from the arc in the victory.

He picked right up where he left off in the next game, a Eurocup clash with CSU Asesoft Ploiesti on 12 November.

Marinkovic drilled four of his five shots from long range and finished with a game-high 19 points.

Vujosevic is in his second spell with Partzan and has helped the career of many a youngster take off there.

Some were Serbians like Bogdan Bogdanvoic or Montenegrins like Nikola Pekovic.

Others hailed from outside the Balkans like Aleks Maric (Australia), Davis Bertans (Latvia) and Joffrey Lauvergne (France).

With Bertans (Laboral Kutxa), Bogdanovic (Fenerbahce Ulker) and Lauvergne (BC Khimki) having left in the summer for pastures new, this season’s rough start was predictable.

But so was the emergence of a new player like Marinkovic.

"It would be a surprise for me if Partizan did not produce someone new," Vujosevic said after the win over Ploiesti.

"This is the place where the young players become great.

"He (Marinkovic) is starting out on a path that is not strewn with roses. He will not play well in every game, but he is a person worth investing in.

"Maybe I was expecting a drop in performance (after the MZT Skopje game), but he showed he can cope well with the pressure."

His Partizan teammate, Serbia national team forward Milan Macvan, also showered the youngster with praise.

"Vanja Marinkovic again went crazy," he said. 

"He was making important baskets and that is what probably decided the game."

The majority of us only see the end result, and not all the work that goes into becoming a good player.

The games are the easy part.

It’s the practice, the hours spent in the gym either alone or with teammates and coaches, that gives the player a foundation to build upon.

Marinkovic said after the victory over MZT Skopje, speaking to the media with a dead-panned look: "I shoot between 700 and 800 three-pointers at every practice."

That may or may not be an exaggeration because of the sheer amount of time one would need to launch so many three-balls, yet Marinkovic was making a point. 

He is not making long-range shots by accident.

The Belgrade-born guard hit 40 percent (14 of 35) from the arc in Dubai while in the Eurocup, he has connected on six of 12 (50 percent).

In the Adriatic League, Marinkovic has buried 38.1 percent (8 of 21) of his three-pointers.

Marinkovic is not the only youth to be raising eyebrows on the old continent.

Anadolu Efes, who are led by Serbian coaching great Dusan Ivkovic, are relying heavily on Furkan Korkmaz and Cedi Osman, players that were important in Friday’s 75-73 upset of Real Madrid in Istanbul.

Osman, a member of Turkey’s squad at the FIBA Basketball World Cup and the MVP of the U20 European Championship after leading his country past Marinkovic and Serbia in the Final, had a team-high 16 points in the victory over Madrid that lifted Efes to the top of Group A in the Euroleague.

FIBA