Welcome to the Preseason – Basketball practice officially starts in 9 days, September 21st.
We’re counting down the 10 days to the beginning of practice ’26-‘27 by taking another look at this season’s roster, focusing on the 10 players most likely to make an impact. The Wolfpack has a bunch of roster question marks this season, the biggest is ‘will the mid-major players successfully step up to Power 4 play’? But individually, we are hoping to see Wilkins, Adams, and Jurkovic play important roles on this team. Today’s focus will be Slovenian forward Robert Jurkovic.
Basketball News
In case
you missed them, these are a couple of good interviews with some current info on the players to check out:
- Assistant Coach Matt Driscoll talks about the team
- Red Locker Room – Coach Gainey interviewed by Rich Howell and Damon Thornton
Predicted breakdown of minutes per player:
#9 Robert Jurkovic
Robert is as much a mystery as any of our players. He hasn’t been featured in as many offseason pictures as some. Even his size is not certain. GoPackhas no height or weight, so far. If you look him up on Basketball Reference he is listed as a 6-10 forward. If you look him up on Proballers , he is listed as a 6’8” small forward and further down the same page in his bio he is listed at 6’7”. And nobody lists his weight. But in the clips we have seen, he appears to be closer to 6’9” and has some decent weight. We have been consistently told he can play forward or center.
What we know for sure:
- Nationality: Slovenian
- DOB : June 14, 2002 (24 years old)
- Experience: There is no high school ball in Europe. He has been in their pro system since the 2019-2020 season when he played in the Under 19 league.
- Experience: He played the last three seasons in the Slovenia – Liga OTP Banka league, considered a high-quality European professional league. Last season he played for Iligija in that league.
- Experience: He has played 95 league games in the last 3 seasons including regular season and playoffs.
2025-2026 Stats
- 31 league games (25 game regular season, 6 playoff games)
- Averaged 21.7 minutes per game
Season Highs:
- Points: 30 points, 6 games with 20+
- Rebounds: 15 rebounds, 3 games with 10+, two double doubles
Patrick Stacy (July Pack Pride interview)
“Really good shooter. He was at 40% 3PT this year as well. Not as much volume, maybe 2 or 3 attempts per game. Really efficient around the basket despite not having, I would say ‘limited-vertical pop’, but he’s not an above-the-rim player. But close to 70% at the rim this season. Really good in terms of short-role playmaking. He’s got a really good feel. Robert was one of the most efficient players in the league. It was a proven league. Definitely someone we have high expectations for, and he can play the 4 or the 5. He offers a little bit of everything to the front court. Great timing and understanding of the game defensively. He led the team in blocks over there. Robert is going to be a big-time piece.”
Assistant Coach Matt Driscoll
“When you talk about Jurkovic, you’re talking about a kid who played professionally. He’s a 24-year-old Slovenian who has come over and he’s gotten into the mix as well.”
Legal Note: Expectations for Jurkovic’s role this season are riding on the assumption that the legal garbage still in play across the country doesn’t come back to bite Lubin. If it does, Jurkovic becomes the first off the bench behaind Evans to start the season.
Expectation – We have not heard much of anything about Robert (the “big RJ”) Jurkovic lately coming out of camp. What little we have heard sounds a lot like Coach Driscoll’s take above. We don’t have much film and no in-depth analysis of his game, like we do with the transfers.
Who we have heard a lot of good things about is Lubin, Yalaho and Evans. And Coach Gainey is still saying, “Shah Hall has his best ball in front of him.” I believe that is coach-speak for, ‘he’s probably not going to see the floor much this season’. Coach Gainey also said, “We will have the opportunity to play two big men.” You might say, “Well DUH coach! We’ve got six big men, two will be on the court most of the time.” That’s not what he meant. I’m pretty sure that is more coach-speak telling us ‘Lubin and Evans will be playing together’. Building this team from the ground up, I think you have Yalaho and Evans cemented in at forward and center and they are there all season (no position switching) probably taking (and deserving!) a cumulative 40-45 (of the 80 available) minutes a game. Lubin, Jurkovic and Wilkins theoretically should be able to sub at both positions if needed – in that order. However, Lubin is too good to keep off the floor, and he and Evans will take 100% of the meaningful minutes at center, so Ven’s going to get his 20-25 minutes a game. (Note: Yalaho, Evans and Lubin all averaged 28.x minutes per game last season) That doesn’t leave a lot of minutes to split between Jurkovic and Wilkins. And as I said in the previous article, as the season progresses, I think Wilkins will be very competitive for those minutes.
I think Jurkovic comes off the bench behind Yalaho to start the season and provides similar outside shooting and defensive rebounding. But he’s not the playmaker Yalaho will be. Wilkins, if he lives up to my expectations, is going to bring stronger interior play, defense, inside scoring, and offensive rebounds. I think that’s the change of pace the coaches are looking for at forward, and as Wilkins gets some experience and is more comfortable with the college game, he’ll get more and more of those available minutes.
