ATHLETE OF THE WEEK George Bugarinovic

The seasons have changed once again, and as the days grow shorter and the weather gets colder, the action in the Goldfarb Gymnasium on the campus of Johns Hopkins University begins to heat up.

The Jays have come out of the gates hot, winning three of their first four contests including a nail biting win over 15th ranked St. Mary's College (MD). A major catalyst among the very young and deep lineup for Coach Bill Nelson's team is freshman George Bugarinovic, this week's News-Letter Athlete of the Week!

All Bugarinovic has done in his first four games at the NCAA Division III level is lead the Blue Jays in scoring (10.8 ppg), rebounding (7.2 rpg), and blocked shots (5). In the St. Mary's contest, Bugarinovic came up huge accounting for 17 points and 11 rebounds in an early season upset that shocked much of the DIII Basketball world.

Gaudy statistics are nothing new for Bugarinovic, however, as he led Blue Valley Northwest High School to two straight state championship games as a junior and senior, and finished his high school tenure as the career leader in rebounds for his high school.

As a senior, Bugarinovic was even nominated from the state of Kansas as a potential McDonald's High School All American candidate, one of the most prestigious honors a high school basketball player can achieve.

The Blue Jay forward's path to Hopkins was quite interesting. Bugarinovic was born in Belgrade, Serbia (same home country as Hopkins sophomore center Aleksander Nikolic), but moved to Canada with his family shortly after until the age of five. Bugarinovic and his family relocated once again to Overland Park, KN, where they have resided ever since.

The freshman, who plans on majoring in Biological sciences or Public Health Studies perhaps with a Pre-Medical concentration, attributes the closeness of the team to what has helped ease the transition to college life.

"Having the basketball team has made the adjustment to college life much easier than it might have been otherwise," the 6'5" forward said. "Being on the team gives you a group of guys that you can hang out with and talk to from the start, and thus far I've had a great time balancing academics and basketball."

Balancing school and playing sports collegiately are no easy task, but Bugarinovic seems to be passing with flying colors both on and off the court. In addition to being a starter as a first year player, Bugarinovic is employed at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital as a research assistant in a cancer lab.

Few players come into a NCAA program and expect to make immediate impacts after only being on campus for a few short months, but Coach Nelson asks quite a lot of his freshman forward, and so far his investment has paid spectacular dividends.

"Coach Nelson wants me to play great defense, rebound, score, and basically do whatever I can to help the team win."

In college basketball, offense may pack the gym, but defense ultimately wins championships, and Coach Nelson's squad has been emphasizing solid team defense from day one of the 2011-2012 campaign.

Bugarinovic cites this defensive effort combined with an unselfish offensive philosophy for the team's early season success. "I think our defense has been very solid thus far and really has helped us compete in a lot of ball games," Bugarinovic said, "On offense, we try to move the ball until we get the best possible shot."

Bugarinovic and the Jays basketball team enter conference play over the next several weeks with a quiet confidence and determination, "taking each game one at a time and doing whatever it takes to win each individual game."

On Wednesday night he led the team to another victory in an end game nailbiter against Gettysburg. He finished with 13 points and seven rebounds on the night.

The Blue Jays will take on the Bullets of Gettysburg College on Wednesday before taking to the road to face the Red Devils of Dickinson on Saturday. Following a break for finals and the Holidays, Bugarinovic and the rest of the Jays will travel to Danville, KY for the Centre College Holiday Classic Tournament.

With his combination of intelligence and athleticism, there is no doubt that this bright young star will be lighting up the hardwood on the Homewood Campus for the next four years.