Luka Bogavac Rounding Into Form As UNC Moves Through ACC Play

As North Carolina dives into the heart of ACC play, Luka Bogavac has started to look more like the player Tar Heel fans envisioned when the Montenegrin wing committed last May.

In his last four outings, Bogavac is averaging 10.8 points, shooting 43.3 percent from the field (13-for-30), and hitting at least one three in each game, while totaling seven assists against one turnover.

“We need him,” Hubert Davis said on the ACC coaches Zoom Monday. “He can distribute, he can score off the catch. He can score off the dribble. He can do a number of things out there on the floor, and he’s been really good for us lately.”

Fittingly, Bogavac’s first 20 games in Carolina blue have reflected the winding, uncertain road he traveled simply to become eligible to play.

Prior to arriving in Chapel Hill, Bogavac played 55 games over two seasons in the Adriatic Basketball Association with SC Derby in his native Montenegro, while also completing two years of college coursework — a combination that complicated the 22-year-old’s eligibility status.

Two weeks before North Carolina’s season opener, Davis confirmed that while Bogavac had received clearance from the NCAA, he was still awaiting approval from the university — a delay that kept him sidelined for UNC’s exhibition games against BYU and Winston-Salem State.

That long-awaited approval finally arrived roughly 30 minutes before tipoff of the Tar Heels’ season opener against Central Arkansas.

Once cleared, “Bogey,” as his teammates call him, started eight of UNC’s first 10 games, averaging 12.5 points while shooting 40.8 percent from the field in the process.

“Luka has the ability to be able to score in many different ways,” Davis said after UNC’s win over Radford on Nov. 11. “He’s a four-level scorer, whether it’s from three, mid range, to the basket, and also can get fouled and get to the free throw line.”

North Carolina’s next six games, however, were ones to forget for Bogavac, who averaged 4.5 points per game while shooting 8-for-27 from the field (29.6 percent), including 3-of-16 from three-point range (18.8 percent).

Bogavac appeared to hit rock bottom against Wake Forest, coming off the bench for the first time as a Tar Heel and finishing scoreless in nine minutes of action.

Bogavac would bounce back, however, with the aforementioned four-game stretch these last two weeks. He first emerged as one of North Carolina’s few bright spots during its woeful West Coast trip, where he totaled 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting. His 13-point performance at Stanford marked his first double-digit scoring outing since Dec. 22 against East Carolina.

Bogavac followed with nine points against Notre Dame last Wednesday and played a key role in keeping the Tar Heels afloat in Saturday’s first half in Charlottesville, scoring 11 points before the break and finishing with 14.

Bogavac’s stepback 3-pointer over Thjis De Ridder with 55 seconds remaining the opener half — his third of the half — marked the beginning of a 6-0 UNC run that trimmed the Virginia lead to single-digits going into halftime.

“Being on the road at Virginia, doesn’t bother, doesn’t phase him a bit,” Davis said Monday. “He actually walks towards that even more. And so, the shots that he made in the first half were huge. They kept us in the game and got us to halftime only down by nine, and just his poise and playmaking he’s done lately has been huge for us.”

Saturday in Charlottesville marked Bogavac’s first multi–three-point game since Jan. 3 in the loss to SMU. When he’s an efficient scorer and smart decision-maker, it adds another layer to a UNC offense that already leads the ACC in effective field goal percentage during conference play (57.5).