This article is the seventh in a series previewing each team in the Ohio Valley Conference.
The international model is back at it again in Martin, Tenn.
Of the 15 players on this roster, all but one are from out of the United States. Additionally, only two of them are returning players.
“I’m kind of as excited as anyone to see what it’s going to look like,” head coach Jeremy Shulman said. “We’ve got three exhibition games, which will help us try to figure that out, but right now, we’ve got 12 or 13
guys I think are really good players, and it might be a fool’s errand right now for me to even figure out who our best guys or who our starters are or anything like that because it feels like it’s changing every single week. I think that’s really fascinating because I think it shows our depth.”
Of the new guys to Shulman’s roster this year, the backcourt duo of German sophomore guard Davi Remagen (transfer from Georgia Tech) and Turkish freshman guard Kaan Onat headline a long list of young players on the team. Remagen comes from a limited role with the Yellow Jackets to a Skyhawk team ready to cater to his style of play, while Onat was once named to the All-Star Five of the 2024 FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup held in his hometown of Istanbul. He joined Cameron Boozer and AJ Dybantsa in that honor before falling to an ACL tear that kept him out for a season. Now healthy, the 6-foot-5 phenom looks to make his way among other European prospects.
“I think Kaan and Davi are in really great places,” Shulman said. “Kaan is talented; he’s a freshman. He’s [still] learning the American game. He’s learning our system. He’s learning how to make winning impacts on all sides of the ball. He’s a very talented player, but he’s still a freshman… [and] I think Davi’s got a chance to be a really, really good player for us. He’s got NCAA experience already. He’s played at a very high level, and he’s got European experience. He’s a great leader. He’s very fun to coach… Obviously, [he’s] still new and learning the system, so he’s got a ways to go, just like Kaan does, but Davi definitely has a chance to be really good.”
“Anything But Mid” OVC Men’s Preview
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Along with Remagen and Onat are a wealth of other exciting freshman guards. Nikas Stuknys is a 6-foot-7 guard from Lithuania. Nikola Janicic is 6-foot-6 from Macedonia. Reid Conley stands out as the only American on the team but should be a rotational piece for the Skyhawks this season as well. Finally, perhaps the biggest news of the offseason for UT Martin was the return of point guard Filip Petkovski to the team, who now should be integral to this year’s success.
“With Phillip…we think he’s made a big jump from freshman to sophomore year,” Shulman said. “He’s a guy who, when we brought him back, we knew we had other guys that we’d already signed, and we weren’t sure what role he’d carve, but man, he’s just been outstanding in practice, and we think he’s made a big jump… just with the experience of being a starting point guard on a 22-win team last year. His experience has been just absolutely, extremely valuable for us. Nikas Stuknys is our fourth guard, who’s a Lithuanian kid. He’s also a really good basketball player as well, and a guy that kind of blends a little bit between Phillip’s game and Davi’s game, where he’s a pass-first guy and can really create for others but also can really score the basketball also. Those four guards will definitely share the court a lot together, and I’m really glad to have all four of those guys.”
In the frontcourt, it’s a story of depth and competition, with big roles looking hard to come by. Returner Vladimir Khryapa rejoins a room filled with talents such as Sasha Savkov from Russia, Armandas Bancevicius from Lithuania, Ousseynou Sambe from Senegal, Gabrielius Bubnys from Lithuania and Giorgi Sulaberidze from Georgia.
“We just have depth even in the front court,” Shulman said. “Sambe’s got a chance to be a really really good player. With his build, he has a chance to be a really good player. Our returning player Vladimir Khryapa, we really think he’s going to make a big sophomore jump, Armandas Bancevicius is going to be a really good player for us, Sasha Savkov as well. So, even with those five guys, in addition to Sulaberidze, we’ve got a lot of depth in that front court, and honestly, it goes week-by-week on who we think has got a chance to be a starter. It really does, and I think it does speak to our depth.”
Despite a wealth of injuries last season, Shulman’s team put together its first KenPom top-100 defense in school history, so the coaching staff looks to repeat that. The Skyhawks also added in some offense with their wealth of talent in the backcourt, but it all starts with learning the American game.
“Everyone’s got great players [in the OVC],” Shulman said. “Other teams are older than us. Other teams are more athletic than us. It’s something we’re trying to use to drive our guys. I think we’ll see it a lot more in the preseason, when the guys actually get a chance to see what other teams actually look like, but I mean that’s coming for us… No one’s handing us anything.”
