Mike Howells/Collegian File Photo
After starting his career as the lone freshman starter on the Fresno State basketball team, Nedeljko Golubovic, or more commonly referred to as “Ned”, began this season as the only senior on the opening-day roster.
During his freshman season at Fresno State, there were seven seniors on the team and two juniors. This year’s roster contains one senior and four juniors which is a big difference from when Golubovic was an underclassman.
“When I came here almost nine guys were seniors and now when I’m leaving; I’m the only one, so it’s quite different,” Golubovic, who has earned academic All-Western Athletic Conference honors for the past three seasons, said. “We have a great team and a lot of young guys that want to play. They’re fun to be around so it’s great.”
Since the forward is the only senior on the team he has tried to increase his leadership role.
“I’ve been a captain for three years now since my sophomore year, but this year even more because we’ve had so many young guys,” Golubovic said. “I felt that I had to let them by example more than anything. Especially, on the court, how to work and how to come ready for practice so I did try to step in and do more in that sense that I usually do.”
Golubovic has come a long way from where he was at a young age, literally. He was born in Montenegro in the late ‘80s and moved to Serbia when he was 14.
Golubovic gave some thoughts on his childhood
“It wasn’t much different than here,” Golubovic said. “At one period of time when the civil war broke out it was a little bit tougher on the economy so people kind of struggled. Otherwise, besides that culturally and socially it was pretty similar to here.”
After moving to Serbia, Golubovic started high school and graduated after four years. He then decided to take a year off from school to pursue a professional career. He eventually changed his mind and decided to continue his education in the United States.
At 19 years old, Golubovic moved to the United States and decided to attend Findlay College Prep, one of the top preparatory high schools in the country. Findlay College Prep is a Henderson International School that is located in Las Vegas. He played only one year in Las Vegas, but the experience proved to be enough.
“I played the year they finished No. 6 in the nation,” Golubovic said. “I played with the guy that goes to Florida State Deividas Dulkys. I played with a couple of guys that go to UNLV right now, Brice Massamba and Carlos Lopez. There are a few other guys that came after me that I met. One of the guys goes to Berkeley (Jorge Gutierrez) and a few other guys go to Texas (Cory Joseph and Tristan Thompson) so it’s a widely recognized program right now. They won a national championship a couple years back and they were runner-up last year. I think they’re ranked No. 1 right now too.”
After his one season at Findlay College Prep, Golubovic started getting offers from various universities. Eventually, he decided on going to Fresno State because of the influence of one of the coaches.
“I liked the coaching staff here,” Golubovic said. “I know coach [Jeff] Reinert. He came to Europe a couple of times and watched a couple tournaments that I played in. So I met him over there. When I came here and saw the environment and support from the community that Fresno State has. That’s what sold me in the end.”
Golubovic has averaged a little more than five points and three rebounds per game for his career, but his impact has been felt with being named CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII for two consecutive years.
Now, the program has no sanctions and an improved API score, this goes along with Golubovic finishing his career at Fresno State.
After coming from Serbia and being the lone senior on the basketball team this season, Golubovic gave some thoughts on the last four years.
“I think overall it was successful,” Golubovic said. “On the basketball court, the last three years maybe I didn’t play as well as I wanted to. We had a chance but we didn’t do it. I think this year we still have a chance to do better and academically I’m satisfied with where I’m at. I’m grateful for the opportunity here.”