Ognacevic reflects on the beginning and looks ahead to the rest of his fifth college season

Lipscomb’s men’s basketball team has been dominating their season, currently 13-6 in all and 5-1 in ASUN conference play. Senior Forward, Jacob Ognacevic, has contributed greatly to the team’s success, coming back from a redshirted junior year to start every game for the Bisons.

Despite not seeing the court due to his injury for nearly two years, Ognacevic came back ready to play, and with a more positive outlook on the game as a whole. (For more on this, read the article on Jacob Ognacevic from pre-season here.) This season, Ognacevic has not only been leading the team in many areas, but averaging 18.9 points a game, a new college high for the 6’8″ forward.

“I’m happy with my role on the team [this year],” said Ognacevic. “[I’ve] been playing a lot of minutes and been a focal point of the team… I’ve had no issues with the knee at all this year, so that’s been really encouraging.”

After spending his junior year on the bench recovering, Ognacevic was “excited” to get back on the court. “It’s good [to be back out there],” he said. “I’m happy to be out there after sitting out. Not that the redshirt year was bad or anything, it just felt weird. Like I, you know, I should have been out there, but I wasn’t. So it’s good to be back. Feels good to feel those nerves again. And it’s nice to play on the floor, to show off my hard work, and, you know, play with the guys and do all that stuff. It’s fun,” he finished with a laugh.

One of the biggest things coming back into the game for Ognacevic has been his pursuit of consistency and “undeniability”. He routinely shoots 500 three point shots and 100 free throws every day outside of regular practice – a habit since coming to Lipscomb.

“I think I’ve [pursued undeniability],” he said about the season so far, “but [I’ve] just got to keep it rolling. Got to stay healthy too.” Even though he’s already shown consistency and growth so far this season, Ognacevic isn’t done working on his skills.

“I would say the main thing this year is I want to shoot the free ball better, for sure,” Ognacevic said. “I haven’t shot it great lately, so just getting that back, you know, back to normal where it should be. And then improving defensively too, is always a main focus.” Ognacevic is already shooting 76.6% from the free throw line (LeBron James shoots 75.8%.), but is determined to get that number higher. “We’ve always got to keep improving,” he said.

In a pre-season interview, Ognacevic had mentioned that the chemistry among the team this season was the best he’d seen in his college years. When asked how that translated to the court now that the team was playing actual games, he smiled.

“I think a lot of our wins have been like 30 point wins. [They] haven’t just been like, oh, we just kind of got by them. We’re really putting it on teams, and even a lot of our losses have been really close… You’ve got to have good chemistry to do that,” Ognacevic said. “I think we all just mesh very well together. And then, you know, when the bench guys get in or the walk ons, our team is really happy about that and we really root them on too. It’s just a good unit. We’ve got a lot of great guys who root for each other and it’s fun to play with.”

The team is a close group on and off the court, and Ognacevic mentioned another thing that has contributed to the team’s success. “I would say our biggest strength is our age,” he remarked. “Like in the game [against Bellarmine], I was a fifth year, Joe’s a fifth year, Gyasi’s a fifth year, Will’s a fifth year and Grant’s a fourth year. We’re an old team, and we’ve all played a ton of college basketball games, been in a ton of different environments, played a ton of different teams. We know what the season is going to look like.”

“Once we get to the ASUN tournament, we know what that’s going to look like,” he added. “That’s probably our biggest advantage, is our age. And then with that, you know, comes maturity, and a bunch of other things too. I think if you watch the Bellarmine game you saw that we were just, you know, a lot older than them. They couldn’t keep up. So, yeah, that’s our biggest strength, for sure.” Lipscomb beat Bellarmine 87-53, leading them by 30 points in the second half alone.

But just because a team is strong doesn’t mean it doesn’t have areas to improve in. Ognacevic highlighted one area in particular, regarding the team’s close losses – which make up four of their six total losses this season.

“I think really, in the second half, we’ve got to keep on playing to win and stop playing like, not to lose, if that makes sense. We’ve just got to keep on putting it on them. You’ve got to be conscious of the score, know that you’re up 13, but like, you know, don’t be afraid to be aggressive.” Ognacevic noted though, that while there have been some games where the team has slipped a little in the second half, there have also been quite a few second half “blowouts”.

“We’ve just got to, you know, keep on putting it on these guys, kind of like we did [at the Bellarmine game]. A lot of our blowout wins, like, we’re up by, you know, five, and then we blow it up to 15, and then it’s like 20, and then it’s 30. We’ve just got to do that with these teams and really put them away, which I think we’re getting better at. And by the end of the year, we’ll pull that under control for sure.”

Ognacevic is looking forward to the rest of the season, but not taking anything for granted. “College basketball, the whole year, you’re gonna have a lot of ups and downs, and you don’t really know what’s gonna happen,” he said. “Whatever it is, we’re going to face some type of adversity, and we just got to respond the right way and stick together and not, you know, turn on each other or do anything of that. We just got to keep on pushing forward.”

While one of the Bisons’ challenges in the past has been games on the road, Ognacevic thought they were strong there this year, knocking one adversity off the board. “We’ve done a good job on the road in the ASUN so far. We’re 3-0 on the road, which is big. I know in the years past playing on the road has been an issue. We’ve lost a lot of the road games, but this year, we’ve taken care of that.”

The road games going so much better for the Bisons this year has not only been a big step for the team, but Ognacevic thinks it bodes well for the ASUN tournament as well. “I mean, if we can keep on winning on the road and then taking care of business at home, I think we’ll definitely win the ASUN… We’ve just got to keep on getting better each game and each week, because, you know, for the rest of the year, it’s play Thursday, Saturday. So every week, just taking a step and then playing our best basketball at the end of February, early March, when the tournament is. We’ve just got to keep on improving, and don’t take any back steps. We want to be playing our best ball in March, and not, you know, right now. We just want to keep on getting better as the season goes on.”

Ognacevic has started every one of the Bisons’ 19 games so far, and anticipates seeing plenty more time on the floor in the next twelve. The Bisons have six more games on the road and six more at home, all against ASUN teams. After that, the ASUN tournament will begin. Lipscomb is currently tied for first in the conference, with Queens, Jacksonville, and FGCU. The Bisons are also currently favored by the ASUN coaches’ pick to win the ASUN tournament.

Ognacevic currently leads the team in total points by over 100 points and total rebounds by more than forty (while also leading in both offensive and defensive rebounds). He leads in minutes played by forty, field goals attempted by over fifty and field goals made by fifty. While he doesn’t lead the team in free throw percentage, he stands at nearly 77% and holds the highest number for free throws shot among the team, shooting 111 and making 85. And there are still twelve games left in the regular season for the 6’8″ forward.

The Bisons’ next game is on January 23, at North Alabama. Tip off is set for 6:00 pm.