Southeast men’s basketball forward Milos Vranes received an invite from head coach Zoran Todorovic to play with the Serbian National Team over the summer.
After the spring semester ended, Vranes was asked to attend a basketball camp in Denver.. He did well at the camp and was later called back for his selection to be a part of the top 25 players chosen to move on to the next portion of tryouts. He attended another camp and from there was chosen to be part of the 12-man Serbian National Team.
“I was really excited,” Vranes said. “I’m not sure how the selection process works. I guess I was the missing piece to the puzzle. This was the first time the national team had a camp outside of Serbia.”
Once selected, Vranes began training with the most elite players Serbia had to offer.
“Training was fun, we didn’t work on conditioning too much,” Vranes said. “We all got invited therefore practices were more loose, because we were all coming from different areas and it was amazing to see what everyone brought to the table.”
Through this opportunity he was able to improve himself mentally and physically. Vranes had to prove himself to hang with the “big dogs.”
“I feel my self confidence has really improved, because I played against a lot of tough players and I played alongside professional players who had been playing for many years,” Vranes said. “I got to play against several NBA players such as Bogdan Bogdanoivc (Sacramento Kings), Boban Marjanovic (Detroit Pistons), Milos Teodosic (LA Clippers), Miroslav Raduljica, Milan Macvan, the entire Serbian A team and a true basketball legend and head coach of Serbian A team Aleksandar Djordjevic.”
Among meeting all these professional athletes and playing alongside them he had other objectives to focus on. He and his team still had to focus on having a successful season, which required much more studying and learning then he had experienced at Southeast.
“It was different playing with the Serbian team than playing at SEMO. Serbian basketball is very different. The most challenging thing for me was remembering the plays. Each play we ran also had subsetting plays. (Play 1, play 1-2, play 1-3, and so on.) There were a total 30 plays I had to remember. I think I improved a lot overall, especially my leadership skills,” Varnes said.
Vranes was able to spend his free time throughout the season.
“Outside of the team I went home to see my family, because I hadn’t seen my family in nearly two years. It was fun for me to hang out with my family and play with my little brother. Other than that it was just basketball and basketball,” Vranes said.
As for this upcoming basketball season, Vranes plans to see the difference in his game himself more than anything. He hopes to see his growth as a player from the summer until now.
“I’m not sure if my game has improved a lot since playing with the national team. I am just waiting to see how my teammates and coaches plan to work with me. I am a senior here now, but I’m just excited to see what this work from the summer will help me do this season,” Vranes said.
Vranes is a senior and does hope to continue his basketball career after college.
“After college I don’t have a preference on whether or not I play for the NBA or overseas,” Varnes said. “I really want to play close to home, I want my family close to me. I will just see how my season. I just want to play basketball whatever works out for me.”
The Serbian National Team finished their season fourth in the world.
