Long Way From Home, Jacob Ognacevic Settles In At UW

Jacob Ognacevic can tell you that it's a 28-hour drive to travel from his hometown in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, to Montlake and the University of Washington basketball team.

He also can share that it's been a five-year journey for him to become a finished product on the college level after moving from mid-major schools Valparaiso and Lipscomb to the Huskies -- and he couldn't have done it a day sooner.

The 6-foot-8, 220-pound reigning Atlantic Sun Player of the Year was asked if in hindsight he should have begun his career in the Big Ten and his answer was refreshingly frank.

"Honestly, no," Ognacevic said this week. "I don't think I was ready to be in the Big Ten. I think that's what makes my college career real special. Each year I've taken a big leap. I've gotten better each year. When I started my first year, I was a role player at Valpo."

Specifically, he weighed 205 pounds and he's now 245. He was so slow before and limited defensively, he had to play center rather than the power forward position he's mastered to the point the Huskies had to have him.

He comes to Washington after averaging 20 points per game last season -- the highest of any player on coach Danny Sprinkle's roster -- with a 57.5 shooting percentage, including 40.2 from 3-point range.

"When he's making 3s, we're going to be a totally different team," Sprinkle said. " We're going to be really hard to guard. I expect him to shoot a tremendous percentage and shoot a lot of them."

Jacob Ognacevic is shown at the NCAA Tournament last winter. | Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

For Lipscomb last season, Ognacevic scored in double figures in 33 of 35 games, with 19 20-point games and five more where he had 30 or more.

A desired Big Ten transfer portal commodity, he picked the Huskies over Iowa, Minnesota and Penn State.

He did this after jumping on a conference call with Sprinkle and nearly all of his staff, which included the team nutritionalist and the director of player development,

"I had never seen that before," Ognacevic said. "Usually it's a coach and a couple of assistants."

It left an impression on this very serious-minded player, who hardly has had anything handed to him along the way.

Ognacevic played a season with a heavy mask to protect presumably a broken nose and he missed the entire 2023-24 season with a knee bruise injury, and bounced back each time.

Once at Lipscomb in Nashville, Tennessee, he improved from an 11.2 scorer to 17.9 to this past season's even 20 points per game, the latter ranking him 19th nationally.

Lipscomb forward Jacob Ognacevic (41) drives against Iowa State's Milan Momcilovic (22) in the NCAA Tournament. | Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

He welcomes the challenge where everyone is a little better, bigger and faster. He likely will compete with 6-foot-10 German import Hannes Steinbach and others for minutes at the power forward position.

Ognacevic had never been to the West Coast until arriving in Seattle. He says he has a great apartment. He seems to have made an easy transition to the city and the school. He is motivated by the upgrade in basketball competition.

Even if it's a 28-hour drive from home, the UW feels like a good fit to him.

"I love the way they play here," he said. "I love what coach Sprinkle is doing. I want to be a part of it."

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