OMAHA, Neb. — As Marek Dolezaj reflected on his first year in the United States, he thought about how he became more assertive in the paint. He thought about how he overhauled his jumpshot, refined his passing and went from reserve to starter.

He also thought about how he arrived at Syracuse without having been to campus or having met head coach Jim Boeheim.

But Dolezaj said the most difficult barricade he encountered was something else: English. He looked back to his first college classes, in August and September, when trying to understand professors was “bad.” Dolezaj understood basketball terminology in pickup games and practices, such as drill descriptions and non-verbal cues, but he played catch up in school.

“It was really hard when I came here,” Dolezaj said after Syracuse’s season-ending to Duke in the Sweet 16. “Everybody knew that. Class was bad. Some tutors helped me a lot. It’s really helped on the court. It was like zero communication and now it’s so much higher.”

As SU enters the 2018 offseason, Dolezaj tied his better understanding of English with his growth as a player. He said it may be no coincidence that he broke into the starting lineup a few months into the season, once he began to communicate and understand teammates more.

The 6-foot-9 freshman from Slovakia is one of three SU players who was born overseas, along with junior center Paschal Chukwu and freshman forward Bourama Sidibe. Chukwu and Sidibe went to high school in the U.S. and have lived here for years. Each improved his English over the course of the season, enhancing the ability to communicate on the court. Dolezaj had to learn the language basically from scratch.

“It is almost unbelievable what they have done,” junior point guard Frank Howard said. “I couldn’t imagine going to another country, being thrown in the fire, expected to keep up verbally and mentally. That’s a tough, tough thing.”

Dolezaj said he meets nearly every day with tutors that SU Athletics provides. He walks in Manley Field House after class, pulls out his books and completes his assignments, while recapping what his professors said in class that day. The sessions last a few hours per day, Dolezaj said, and are geared to both boost his understanding of his second language and improve his grades. He has taken a language class in each of his first two semesters on campus, he said. After the tutoring sessions, Dolezaj goes to practice, another platform from which to learn.

“I understand more basketball terms, understood coach (Jim Boeheim),” Dolezaj said. “I didn’t understand what teammates would talk about in normal life, off the court. I had no idea what they were saying.”

For example, Dolezaj did not understand what teammates planned to do on the weekend or what they planned to eat. His progression in learning the language began with basketball, because he spent so much time on the court and he heard the same terms over and over.

“Then I understood, but I never talked,” Dolezaj said, referencing the midseason point.

During the offseason, Dolezaj said he will benefit from having less practice and game time and more free time, some of which he will utilize to study and improve his English. After finals, he will return home to Slovakia for a few weeks. Then he’ll come back to campus for the second summer session to train in the Carmelo K. Anthony Center and take classes.

Later this year, Dolezaj looks forward to helping his good friend from Slovakia, Mario Ihring, transition to the U.S. Ihring is “really good, better than me,” and will soon commit to a Division I program, Dolezaj said. They have not spoken much, but Dolezaj hopes he can teach Ihring a few things about English when he arrives.

“When Marek first got here, you could barely hear what he was saying,” Chukwu said. “Now you can kind of understand him on the court. When you’re around a lot, we get to understand the way he pronounces certain words.”

Published on March 25, 2018 at 10:51 pm

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