Amsal Delalic is one of the most intriguing players on the Pitt basketball roster.
Pitt’s 21-year-old freshman is coming off a season in which he averaged 13.9 points and 4.6 rebounds in the top Bosnian professional league. He shot an even 40% from three-point range last year, going 82 for 205 from beyond the arch.
Then, this spring, he visited Pitt, and shortly after, committed to the Panthers’ program.
Now, as the Panthers have had some time away from the team, he appears to be back home in Bosnia working on his game with his father, Amir Delalic, who was a long-time professional basketball player and now coaches/trains athletes over there.
Earlier this summer, in an interview on The Pittsburgh Basketball Show,Delalic broke down his thoughts on European Vs. American basketball.
“In Europe, it’s more like every possession matters, even though it’s the same here in America,” he said. “It’s very strict there. Coaches are very strict with what they want. You have to put everything aside and you literally have to be for the team. There are some great individual players in Europe, but mostly it’s team-first.”
Delalic,a. 6-foot-7 wing, said he models his game after Kevin Durant, Toni Kukoc, and Bogdan Bogdanovic.
“Every club is really ready to step up their game when it matters the most,” he continued. “While, here [in America] it’s very fast, it’s very athletic, not that much fundamental. I see some players starting to come from Europe. It’s going to be interesting the past few years because this NIL stuff has started also. I don’t know what’s going to happen if it’s going to transition. little bit, but it is way faster than it was back in Europe. In Europe, it’s more possession-by-possession, rather than here, running and out-scoring, rebounding, and doing the basic stuff.”
Pitt has five international players on this year’s team, with three coming from Europe (Spain x2, Bosnia and Herzegovina x1), and two from Africa (Senegal x2).
The story said he is in Bosnia now. Is the Fall semester on break already? In the NIL era, are athletes not even pretending to be students anymore? I suppose he could be in online courses, but still I would think the team is lifting together and doing unofficial workouts. I hope this is an old post and he is actually on campus now bonding with the team.
The story said he is in Bosnia now. Is the Fall semester on break already? In the NIL era, are athletes not even pretending to be students anymore? I suppose he could be in online courses, but still I would think the team is lifting together and doing unofficial workouts. I hope this is an old post and he is actually on campus now bonding with the team.