Arizona’s Maksim Brnovic adjusting to new life for second time since leaving Montenegro

New language. New coaches. Different style of play. And, oh, classes to take.

Maksim Brnovic had reason to think he was done with all of that.

The Arizona freshman forward left his native Montenegro at age 16 in the summer of 2024 for Lithuania, tethered to his homeland via an online high school but exposed everywhere else to the language, culture and basketball tradition of the Baltic country.

“I had a couple of” doubts, Brnovic said. “It was hard leaving home the first two or three months to adapt there.”

But that passed quickly. Brnovic picked up a few Lithuanian words, was able to function in practices because his team spoke mostly English on the court, and made a lot of good friends, seeing many of them briefly when the Wildcats made an exhibition tour through the country in August.

Because of where he was playing, Brnovic might have been set for the long haul, too.

He joined the junior program of the country’s most prestigious club, Zalgiris, and became the first non-native captain of that team in club history, over his two-year stay. He was on a trajectory that could have landed him with its top club, the only one in Lithuania that plays in the top-level EuroLeague along with domestic competition.

As Brnovic says, moving to Lithuania to play basketball for Zalgiris is akin to moving to England to play soccer for Liverpool.

There aren’t too many better places to hoop in Europe.

“My dream was to go outside somewhere, either Spain or Lithuania, but I'm happy that I chose Lithuania because it ended up in the right way,” Brnovic said. “Basketball there is like a religion, and being there for two years made me stronger and better as a person. I made a lot of friends there and had a really great time. It was really good for development.”

But at the same time, Brnovic’s game continued to develop so much that other options soon popped up, including the Arizona offer he accepted in June. 

Having picked up basketball competitively at age 8, thanks in part to his father’s love for basketball and admiration for Kevin Durant, Brnovic said things really picked up after he joined the well-regarded KK Buducnost club at age 9.

“When I went to Buducnost, he told me to get No. 35 because he told me I reminded him of KD,” Brnovic said of his father, almost bashfully. “I was nine. I don’t know how but I’m still wearing No. 35.”

He also had no idea he'd be wearing No. 35 for a U.S. college team, but that's what happened.

It did partly because top European prospects, especially those located in Lithuania, tend to hit the Arizona recruiting radar. UA associate head coach Jack Murphy watched Brnovic playing in an Adidas Next Gen EuroLeague event and things escalated from there.

“Coach Murph was in a contact with me, with my family, with my agent. He was watching me all the time,” Brnovic said. “And also they love Lithuania as a country. You know, there’s a lot of Lithuanians in the past at Arizona and right now.”

That fact is becoming pretty well known. Former UA standout forward Azuolas Tubelis plays for Zalgiris’ senior club and the Lithuanian national team, while Lithuanian natives Motiejus Krivas and Ugnius Jarusevicius are playing center for the Wildcats this season.

The ties of UA coach Tommy Lloyd, Murphy and the Wildcats to Lithuania are so strong that the team tried to schedule an exhibition tour there in 2023 before they went to the Middle East and then finally made the trip this August.

That allowed Krivas, Jarusevicius and even Brnovic to renew their Lithuanian ties.

“It felt weird not to wear (Zalgiris’) green and white colors over there, but it felt amazing to see everybody from last season, all the teammates, and coaches,” Brnovic said. “All of them were watching the first game.

“Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture with all of them. Didn't dap them up after the game. I really wanted to do that, wanted to see everybody.”

But Brnovic said he did stop by to see a few former teammates beforehand and, besides, he wasn’t able to do much after that first game: Brnovic said he suffered a concussion when he took a hard fall during a drive to the basket in the final minutes of UA’s loss to the Lithuanian national B team. He fell forward but was unable to break the fall with his hands, landing smack on his chin.

Nothing broke, but the concussion meant Brnovic couldn’t play in the Wildcats’ final two games in Lithuania nor even be in the arena for their second game against Ukraine because of concussion protocol.

“The sound was disturbing and everything,” Brnovic said. “I was a little bit sad, of course, but I tried to keep calm and just help the team.”

But Brnovic was able to attend UA’s final game on the trip, a win over the Lithuanian national team, and said he returned to the court after two weeks or so. He’s been available for all of the Wildcats’ practices since they returned from a post-Lithuania break, and played 17 productive minutes in the Red-Blue Showcase on Sept. 26.

In that scrimmage, Brnovic showed a little bit of the versatility and skills that could find him a spot in the Wildcats’ rotation this season: He had eight points while shooting 2 for 5 from the field, hit 1 of 2 3-pointers, hit all three free throws he took, collected three rebounds and dished an assist without turning the ball over once.

“Maks is a great young prospect, a great person,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “He's really talented, and I think he's just starting to scratch the surface. We fully expect him to be a contributor this year.

“I'm sure there's going to be a lot of ups and downs, and hopefully now he's getting comfortable enough and confident enough to take the ups and downs in stride and really learn from them.”

The Wildcats are especially deep on the perimeter, with Derek Dixon and JJ Mandaquit at point guard, plus Caleb Holt, Ivan Kharchenkov and Cameron Holmes on the wings. Possibly as a result, Brnovic has been mostly playing power forward at Arizona so far.

That gives the Wildcats insurance in case Clemson transfer RJ Godfrey does not become eligible via his five-for-five lawsuit in Georgia, or even if Godfrey becomes in foul trouble. Most of UA’s other bigs are either centers or developmental players.

But, even though it’s yet another adjustment for Brnovic to make, he says he’s willing to play wherever Lloyd needs him to play. Brnovic said he’s also picked up 25 pounds, from between when he first visited UA, to 230 pounds, aware of the physicality he will need in the college game.

He’s fine with all of that, considering what it’s getting him in return.

“I graduated from high school a year before I was supposed to, and my plan was to stay in Zalgiris, because I have a really good connection with them, and play in EuroLeague,” Brnovic said. “But then this opportunity came, which I'm grateful for. I knew that it was sent from God.

“The message for me: It was the right opportunity, right spot, good people and good environment.”