Walking the talk

Nov. 24, 2015

He was Liberty League Co-Player of the Year and made several regional first teams. His coach says the 6-foot 4-inch point guard reminds him of NBA superstar LeBron James in his flexibility:  Libertywide, he’s second in per-game assists, third in steals, sixth in scoring, 15th in rebounding.

But go to a team shoot-around or pregame meal and you’d never know that laid-back Aldin Medunjanin ’16 is the best men’s basketball player at Skidmore, perhaps in all of NCAA Division III. You’d soon find out, though, that he is the team’s heart and soul.  And that basketball is his heart and soul.

 
"I've played with and against a lot of great players,” says forward Eric Lowry ’16, “but I've never met a man with as much humility.” The co-captain, Lowry says, “leads by example, by working the hardest. He practices like he's at the end of the bench trying to play his way into the lineup.”

Medunjanin’s parents had immigrated to New York City from the small Balkan country of Montenegro, but his father died before he was born, leaving him as the man of the house. Through the Boys Club of NYC, he found Millbrook School, which led him to Skidmore’s Opportunity Program. A health and exercise sciences major with a perennially strong GPA, he has twice earned league All-Academic honors. Though he’s quick to credit others for helping him, he candidly says, “I did the whole thing myself because I had to.”

Coach Joe Burke says, “Aldin is so mature and so reliable. He’s an incredible leader.” As team co-captain, Medunjanin says, “We are a family—‘together’ is what we say after each huddle, and it truly means something to us. There are no knuckleheads or egos on our team.”