Olga Gvozdenovic says she doesn't watch a lot of television, and the evidence backs her up.
The 6-foot-2 Gvozdenovic, known to Chicago-area hoops fans simply by her first name, has spent the better part of her 18 years on basketball and tennis courts, leaving little time to waste in front of a TV set.
Even in the age of ESPN, CNN/SI and 24-hour, in-your-face television sports, the Illinois Player of the Year and Duke signee gave away a touch of naivete in describing a recruiting visit to her future school.
The visit was fun, and she even met some members of the men's team. There's just one problem.
"I can't remember their names," she said sheepishly. "I think one of them was Trajan, um, Lang-is that his name?"
You can forgive Gvozdenovic if she hasn't been glued to her screen lately; over the past four years she's been too busy leading Loyola Academy (Wilmette, Ill.) to a pair of state titles and becoming the school's all-time leading scorer (2,080 points).
The Parade All-American averaged 17 points per game as a senior, leading her team to a 30-5 record and a state quarterfinals berth. A buzzer-beater by Galesburg High School cost Loyola a shot at a three-peat, but it hardly tarnished what Gvozdenovic, also an all-state tennis player, accomplished in her career.
"She's the most widely recognized athlete in our school's history," Loyola coach Tanya Johnson said. "All you have to do is say 'Olga,' and I don't think that there's anyone in the Chicago area who is clued in to basketball who doesn't know who you're talking about."
In her four years at Loyola, Gvozdenovic helped guide the Ramblers to a 126-10 record, including a remarkable 56 straight wins in the Chicago Catholic League. Rated the No. 26 recruit in the country by Blue Star recruiting service, the lefthanded forward has played on winning teams at nearly every level-starting with a sixth-grade AAU squad which won a national championship.
That's not just a sign of talent, but also of her willingness to be coached, Johnson said.
"For some athletes, it would be easy for them to have heads the size of pumpkins with all the attention she gets," Johnson noted. "But when you're really loved by your teammates and successful like she is, it says a lot about you.
"She's everything good you could want in a student-athlete: a great work ethic, a dedicated student, a great role model."
Part of what made Gvozdenovic's Loyola career special was a knack for shining in big games. At Illinois' high-pressured final weekend of high-school basketball, eight quarterfinalists square off for three rounds in two days.
Gvozdenovic twice dazzled the fans at Redbird Arena in Normal, Ill., by carrying Loyola through the final weekend to the championship. In six games "downstate" as a sophomore and a junior, she never scored fewer than 21 points.
"Something about tournament time makes some athletes pick it up a notch," Johnson said. "I don't know how she does it, but she has really carried people on her back at times."
Gvozdenovic's efforts weren't enough to get Loyola to the finals for a third-straight time this year but she earned a handful of postseason awards, including an invitation to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association All-American game.
At that game, Gvozdenovic got to meet future teammate Michele Matyasovsky, another member of a recruiting class ranked among the nation's best. Gvozdenovic also strained ligaments in her knee, an injury which kept her out of the game but which should heal by the time she arrives at Duke next fall.
That arrival can't come soon enough for the outgoing Gvozdenovic, who sounds as though she is getting bored these days without tennis or basketball.
"I don't know how I'll do until I get there," she said. "But I'm just ready to work my butt off and improve."
Even with 10 colleges on her "short" list, Gvozdenovic didn't waste time in choosing Duke last November.
"When Coach [Gail] Goestenkors came to my home she was very nice, and she approached my parents with a lot of respect, which was a key for me," she said. "When I visited the school, I just really liked the way she reacts to her team. Some of her players were injured and they would drop by after treatment sessions, just to talk.
"At some schools, they would just do their rehab and go home. She has a real player-coach relationship."
Gvozdenovic, who admits that she does not watch a lot of basketball on television, nonetheless followed Duke's run through the tournament this year with a bit of detached fascination.
"Actually it didn't click until people told me," she said. "It finally clicked when somebody said something to me like, 'Hey, you're going to Duke next year, and they're in the Final Four.' It didn't register to me that I was going to this incredibly successful program.
"I started thinking, 'This is crazy.' But it's a good crazy, not a bad crazy."
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