Danilo Jovanovich. One of the newest incoming pieces to this Louisville basketball team for next season and the most kept-quiet addition of the offseason by far. The 6-foot-8 forward was instantly questioned by the fanbase based on his lack of minutes played at Miami last season. But, he suffered a left ankle injury early in the season and by the time he recovered, the Hurricanes were off and rolling and didn’t need to adjust their rotation.
However, that does not take away from how highly the Miami staff thought of Jovanovich. It was just an unfortunate set of circumstances that took place, minimizing his playing time. After talking with one of his former coaches, I think Louisville fans will like him much more than they initially thought they would.
His former coach is Antonio Curro, the Founder of NY2LA Sports and Director of the Phenom University EYBL Grassroots travel program. Some of the notable players he has coached include Reece Beekman, Tyrese Hunter, Jaemyn Brakefield, Andrew Rohde, and Kobe Johnson, among others. Quite an impressive resume and the perspective of a man with nearly two decades of experience in the game of basketball. He speaks glowingly of Jovanovich. He said:
"“Danilo is outstanding – one of the best pure post scorers – highly efficient – can go inside and outside if needed – rebounds at a high level – tough as there is.”"
If you need some more validity to what this man is saying, he also coached Jalen Johnson, a former consensus five-star recruit and an NBA first-round pick, and Patrick Baldwin Jr., a former consensus five-star recruit and an NBA first-round pick. He also coached Brandin Podziemski, who is projected to be selected in this year’s NBA Draft.
This guy knows basketball and knows talent so when he says Danilo “is legit and would’ve been a top-6 guy in Miami’s rotation this year if healthy.” Then, you can understand just how special of a player he is going to be. One of the terms Kenny Payne used to describe the type of players he wants at Louisville is “workout animals.” And according to Danilo’s former coach, he is exactly that.
"“Kid is tough and he can really go. He will get better and better with each passing month and will sell out daily effort wise. He is long, skilled, with solid length and athleticism. An old school blue-collar mentality where he will do whatever it takes to win while contributing consistently.”"
Based on that description, it is evident why Kenny Payne went after this kid. Kenny Payne and Danilo Jovanovich seem to be a match made in heaven. He has the talent for a Division I basketball team, but more importantly, he has the work ethic. From the looks of it, the Louisville basketball team is getting a very motivated, skilled player in Danilo Jovanovich.
It didn’t take much to convince him to want to come to Louisville. As much as Kenny Payne wanted him, he wanted to be a Cardinal.
"“He absolutely wanted to be at Louisville, his former coach says. He wanted to play for Kenny and wanted to be a Louisville Cardinal. He can play in any system – as smooth a low post scoring forward as there is – long with solid vertical athleticism.He will be great with KP and exceptional for the overall culture and in helping develop a winning tough culture at Louisville. Kid is a Class A+ character guy as well off the court – outstanding young man.”"
Antonio would go on to say that Kenny Payne’s history of developing players and being 100% authentic with them helped draw him to the University of Louisville. Louisville’s Assistant Athletic Director, Zach Greenwell, recently confirmed this with a quote from Devin Booker, who was describing his experience with Kenny Payne at Kentucky.
“Kenny was one of those guys that instilled that confidence in me, too. He’d work you the hardest in pursuit of that, so I told him my dreams, I told him what I wanted to do. And he moved accordingly from there."
— Zach Greenwell (@zach_greenwell) May 8, 2023
– @DevinBook on @coachkennypayne https://t.co/PZqgmXvkbJ
It’s very evident that the public perception of Kenny Payne is vastly different than the perception of those who deal with him on a personal basis.
"“Those like me that are heavily in the basketball arena (for nearly two decades) – Kenny is one of the most respected human beings and developers of talent that there is – he’s exceptional for Louisville, just had to go through last year,” he says."
Kenny Payne is one of us. He is a former Louisville Cardinal player, who played under the legend Louisville Head Coach Denny Crum, and now he is taking the reigns of this program and steering it in the right direction. Every move he makes is intentional and calculated, which is another reason why the addition of Danilo Jovanovich will be a massive advantage for this Louisville basketball program.