Wright State gets commitment from Marist grad transfer

Aleksandar Dozic, who will graduate from Marist College this month, plans to transfer to Wright State and will be eligible to play for the Raiders next season. PHOTO COURTESY OF MARIST ATHLETICS

Aleksandar Dozic, who will graduate from Marist College this month, plans to transfer to Wright State and will be eligible to play for the Raiders next season. PHOTO COURTESY OF MARIST ATHLETICS

Wright State picked up its third new player in the last week with the addition of Marist College grad transfer Aleksandar Dozic, a 6-foot-9 post who saw plenty of action for the Red Foxes but left in search of a winning program.

The native of Podgorica, Montenegro, averaged 7.0 points and 3.5 rebounds as a junior last season and 7.3 and 4.3 in 2017-18 (with a career high of 19 against The Citadel, including four 3’s). But the team stumbled to records of 12-19 and 6-25 in his two years there after transferring from Marshall.

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“One of my biggest goals when I came for college basketball was to make it to March Madness. I definitely want to go there, and I wanted to go to a team that has the potential to do that. I think Wright State has a great chance to win the league next year,” he said.

In the last two years, the Raiders have won a regular-season league title and conference tournament and played in the NCAA tourney and NIT. That was big part of coach Scott Nagy’s selling point to Dozic, who will be eligible next season.

“I just liked his approach toward basketball and his goal to win — not just to win the conference, but in the tournament,” Dozic said. “I liked that seriousness and the professional mentality that I think we lacked at Marist.

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“I’m tired of losing. I can see he’s not someone who’s into losing. He wants the best for his team, and I’m excited to play for him.”

Dozic joins former Northwestern guard Jordan Ash and Grand Canyon guard Tim Finke as Wright State transfer signees. Three high school seniors also are part of the six-player recruiting class.

“I would liken (Dozic) to Parker (Ernsthausen),” Nagy said of the starting power forward, who graduated after last season. “He’s probably a better scorer, though he’s not to Parker’s level defensively. But what he does do is give us an older kid with a lot of experience in college basetball. And he also gives us depth at a position where we don’t have a lot of depth.

“We’ve just been stuck the past three years with not using all our scholarships and getting an injury here or there or something happening and all of a sudden you’re down to seven guys. We’re just trying to avoid that.”

Before playing for Don Bosco Prep in Crown Point, Ind., where he averaged 18 points and 11 rebounds as a senior, Dozic had extensive international experience with the Montenegro U-18 team from 2011-15. He helped the squad win the 2013 European championship.

He visited Wright State for a couple of days last week and was impressed with what he saw.

“Marist is a good academic school with a very beautiful campus,” he said. “But the facilities and the investment in basketball are not up to what it is at Wright State. They definitely lack that.

“It was a nice three years. I’ve met some good friends here. But I’m ready to leave.”

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