But DeCuire’s choice was junior center Fabijan Krslovic, with an assist to athletic trainer Justin Hunt. You need to look beyond Krslovic’s four points and six rebounds to get the true measure of his worth.
The 6-foot-8 Aussie was tasked first with defending Eastern center Jacob Wiley, who finished with 10 points, 15 fewer than he scored in a win over Montana State on Thursday. But late in the game, Krslovic was switched over to Bogdan Bliznyuk, Eastern’s leading scorer who had hurt the Griz with drives to the rim all game. Bliznyuk scored just two of his 21 points after Krslovic assumed the defensive duties.
“Fab won a game like this for us two years ago when they had Venky Jois,” DeCuire said of the former Eastern post player. “We knew they were going to go to Jois on the last possession and we couldn’t help because they had four shooters in the game. Fab, as a freshman, we were talking about where we were going to bring help and he said, ‘Coach, don’t bring any help. I’ve got it.’ And he got the stop on that last possession to win the game. I remembered that.
“Fab is good at containing drivers and guys like that. I didn’t want to go to it too early in the game because I knew Fab has a tendency to pick up fouls. When he only had one foul halfway through the second half, that’s when we made the switch and that really won the game for us.”
But Krslovic might not have even been on the floor if not for Hunt. Krslovic was fouled hard from behind in Montana’s win over Idaho on Thursday and landed on his right wrist. It was heavily taped on Saturday.
“Justin Hunt is the MVP of the game because he got Fab back on the floor for us today,” DeCuire said. “We expected to not have him.”
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