Way Back Wednesday: Illinois Tech's Dugalic Trying to Get to D-III All-Star Basketball Game
Voting Open Until 11 a.m. Thursday for 2018 Maine West Grad
OK, so this one doesnβt go way, way back since Milos Dugalic graduated in 2018 from Maine West.
Dugalic just finished an excellent basketball career at Illinois Tech, which is on the east side of the Dan Ryan Expressway a few blocks from whatever they call the place the White Sox play these days. Dugalic is trying to get to the Reeseβs Division III All-Star Game on March 18 in Fort Wayne, Indiana and needs some help as one of the seven finalists competing for a final spot in the game via an online fan vote (click the button below to go to the voting site).
Illinois Tech SID and Hoffman Estates grad Eric Willuweit is pushing the campaign for Dugalic. The voting opened Tuesday afternoon and runs through 11 a.m. Chicago time Thursday. You can vote once per browser at D3hoops.com. So, in a time-honored Chicago tradition also suggested by Willuweit, you definitely need to vote early and you can sort of vote often if you use multiple phones, laptops and other devices.
As of 7:40 a.m. Wednesday, Dugalic had taken the lead in a tight race with Isaiah Geathers of Lehman College in New York and Jeremy Beckler of Carleton College in Minnesota. Nothing against Geathers and Beckler, who are obviously great players and surely great kids, but letβs support the local guy here.
The 6-foot-9 Dugalic earned first-team all-Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) for the second consecutive season. He averaged 17.2 points a game on 52.5 percent shooting from the field, ranked eighth in the country in rebounding at 12.4 and averaged 2.4 assists. His 18 double-doubles also ranked eighth nationally as the Scarlet Hawks finished 11-15 overall and 9-8 in the NACC.
Last year, Dugalic averaged 15.3 points and 8.3 rebounds. The engineering major also gets the job done in the classroom and has received multiple NACC scholar-athlete honors.
Dugalic wants to pursue a professional basketball career and his inspiration is former Illinois Tech teammate Max Hisatake, who is playing in Japan. Willuweit said Dugalic and guard Otis Reale, the teamβs No. 2 scorer, are working with head coach TJ Gray to prepare for any prospect camp opportunities.
My recollection of basketball at the school is when it was known as the Illinois Institute of Technology and going to see ex-Prospect star big man Doug Bonthron play there in the late β70s. His cousins Brett and Scott were neighbors and friends growing up in Elmhurst and their dad was a professor at the school.
Bonthron was a Herald all-area pick in 1975 when Prospect won the Mid-Suburban League and reached the sectional final along with captain Mike Quade, who managed the Cubs during his long career in pro baseball, and Al Black. Buffalo Groveβs Brian Allsmiller was also on that all-area team.
So, thereβs your bit of a way-back component. More important is the near future and getting those votes in for Milos Dugalic to make the D-III all-star game.