Washington forward Jacob Ognacevic may be the only college basketball player in possession of the Mona Lisa. Now, it isn’t the real Mona Lisa–instead it’s a Lego version that hung on a wall in his apartment last year–but it’s a piece of a collection that cements Ognacevic as college basketball’s most accomplished Lego builder.
Ognacevic’s Lipscomb–where he spent the last three seasons before arriving at Washington in the spring–apartment housed a 4,000 piece replica of Jabba’s Sail Barge–which he says took 10-to-12 hours to complete–a Lego Viking Village, a Lego Pyramid of Giza, a Lego Daily Bugle, a small Lego heart and a Lego picture frame.
Lipscomb’s January trip to Florida included rare ASUN road wins over North Florida and Jacksonville, but is remembered for something else a year later. Ognacevic sparked his Lego addiction that week by purchasing a Star Wars Captain Rex head Lego set and started a movement. The collection that Ognacevic began to build that day–and Ognacevic’s passion for it–was impressive enough to get a few of his Lipscomb teammates to join in on a pursuit of a Lego collection.
“He’s a nerd,” Lipscomb point guard Joe Anderson said of Ognacevic in jest prior to Lipscomb’s NCAA Tournament game last spring, “But, he’s awesome.”
Anderson said at the time that the idea that Ognacevic merely does Legos “is an understatement” and that the then-Lipscomb forward had five or six $500 Lego sets. Ognacevic said at the time that he had 10 sets in his living space and that he would need to take some home in an effort to clear space.
Ognacevic’s dad says his son “doesn’t really have any other hobbies, doesn’t spend a lot of money and doesn’t even have a car,” so his expensive LEGO hobby isn’t any sort of burden. He says he enjoys that his son has found a hobby that allows him to relax.
The Washington forward’s Lego fascination started as a result of his Star Wars fandom and is one of a few hobbies that he’s picked up over the years. The former Lipscomb forward’s apartment was full of Legos, funko pops and movie memorabilia last year. A piece of MMA merchandise was also present somewhere if Ognacevic’s interests indicate anything. Ognacevic’s Legos appear to encapsulate him the most of any of his apartment decorations, though.
“It’s fun, it’s something to do and get my mind off of things,” Ognacevic said in the spring. “Some of [the sets] are frustrating because they’ll kind of fall apart and you’ll mess up and put a piece in the wrong place, but I’ve gotten better. It’s cool to see it when it’s done.”
Ognacevic’s move to Washington has slowed his Lego building because of the 26-hour driving distance between his college home and his Wisconsin hometown. The Washington forward says he’s “only” built three sets since arriving in Seattle—including one of The Office and two Star Wars sets—and hasn’t built anything big.
Even circumstance can’t strip the love for the hobby away from the Washington forward, though.
“Once I get settled,” Ognacevic told Basket Under Review, “I’ll definitely start building more.”
In an era of power-five college basketball pervaded by ego and a lack of loyalty, Ognacevic hangs out with managers.
The Washington forward–who made his power-five debut against Michigan on Jan. 14 against Michigan–has never been an unapproachable or larger than life personality. Ognacevic says that in his first year at Lipscomb–when he was adjusting to being seven-hours away from his Cheboygan, Wisconsin, home–he would go where he had to be and would often go back to his room alone without saying all that much.
It’s not as if Ognacevic was intimidating as much as he was simply a self-described introvert. Ognacevic has reached college basketball’s ultimate dance floor since those days and has “come out of his shell,” as former Lipscomb coach Lennie Acuff said, since his early days at Lipscomb. He’s yet to abandon his private Instagram account–which still has less than 1,000 followers–or the unique midwest humility that he carries himself with, though.
“He still calls me to catch up with a full schedule at Washington,” Former Lipscomb manager Chris Ferguson told Basket Under Review. “JO is your dream guy to manage for. I remember my first practice, I was so shy. JO was a little bit quiet to start the year and I remember one night I was doing laundry and he was in the locker room and we talked for nearly an hour and since then have been close.”
Ognacevic says his adjustment to Seattle has been easier than the beginning of his stop at Lipscomb because of his age and his maturation socially. It’s inevitably been aided by his approachability, as well.
The approach has been molded over the years by Ognacevic’s Christian upbringing, his dad says. Ognacevic’s faith has been as much a fixture of his rise as his introverted personality.
The Washington forward has kept the same foundation and evolved since his entirely introverted days as a Lipscomb underclassman, but he’s still the LEGO-building, low-maintenance standout that he always has been. Ognacevic’s dad says his son knows everything can change in a split second and that he still knows he’s best off with a humble approach that’s centered more on listening than speaking.
“I don't think I'm better than anyone or anything like that,” Ognacevic said. “I just don't wanna have too much of an ego. I don't think that's a great thing to have. I wanna be a guy that people wanna hang around. I'm playing a sport like I don't think—I mean it's important and it's good but at the end of the day, there's a lot more important things and jobs out there than this so it's like kinda keeping it in perspective too. I’m playing basketball, I just don't want to get too big of a head.”
Ognacevic’s humility has often manifested in the reality that his most common late-night activity throughout his time at Lipscomb was shooting on the gun at Allen Arena.
That reality isn’t changing anytime soon, it appears. That’s what got Ognacevic here. That’s what has him on track to be playing this game for a long time.
“He doesn't like going out to the bars or going out to clubs or anything like that,” Ognacevic’s dad, Brian, told Basket Under Review. “He likes going out to eat and having a good time, but not staying out till one or two in the morning. He’s focused on getting to bed early, things like that.”
In the past six years, Ognacevic has been the best player on a team that made March Madness, experienced a spring as a highly-sought after transfer, missed a season due to injury and has struggled to find a rotation spot.
Those who have been around for the entirety of the ride describe it as a journey full of “ups and downs,” but here he is better on the other side of frustration and triumph.
“He’s always gonna stay on the path that the Lord has for him and that's what this is really all about,” Ognacevic’s dad said. “He’s never wavered from the fact that he's gonna stay on the path and continue to be a great teammate and not complain and just do whatever you can to get through.”
Ognacevic’s non-linear rise climaxed with tears on Lipscomb’s home floor after he and the Bisons won an ASUN Title, hit low points with games during his freshman season at Valparaiso in which he never got off the bench despite being healthy and had in between moments in which he had to work his way into a consistent starting role at Lipscomb as a junior.
The then-Lipscomb forward had finally arrived in a way after that junior season and was touted as a potential ASUN Player of the Year candidate by Acuff, but missed the entirety of the season with a knee issue. While Ognacevic sat out and eventually opted for a medical redshirt, he was subject to local speculation about his desire to play and whether he would enter the transfer portal at the season’s conclusion.
As Ognacevic looks back on that season—in which Lipscomb was supposed to make a run towards March Madness—he admits that it was “tough” to watch from the sidelines. Ognacevic says he wasn’t ever going to let things end that way in Nashville, though. Instead, he ended his career as a Bison as the ASUN Player of the Year and with enough of a body of work that Acuff admitted Ognacevic didn’t have much of anything else to prove at the ASUN level and encouraged him to take an opportunity to see if he could do it at the power-five level.
Ognacevic has experienced just about everything that he could’ve imagined experiencing when arriving to college as a relatively thin, un-ranked recruit in the midst of Covid. As a result, he’s an example of how a late bloomer—who was in the backyard of BIG 10 schools as a high schooler but admits he wasn’t ready for that stage yet—can become a beneficiary of college basketball’s transfer-portal heavy landscape.
“It’s been quite a journey,” Ognacevic said. “Ending it in the BIG 10 is also big time. If you told me my freshman year that I would've been playing here I wouldn’t have believed you. Making it to this level is really cool and it's really fun and I'm just trying to take it all in and have a great time, enjoy it while it lasts.”
On the precipice of everything he had set out to do, Ognacevic walked out onto the floor at Washington’s basketball training facility with everything seemingly ahead of him.
The 6-foot-8 forward was invested in, had a clear path to a role and was around a month away from making his debut as a power-five player. Then, it happened.
In a moment on brand with Ognacevic’s career path—which has seemingly never passed up an opportunity to make him learn from a trial of some sort—he suffered a fracture in his fifth metatarsal and eventually opted for surgery.
The injury cost Ognacevic 16 games—including five BIG 10 games—and delayed his full-circle moment of becoming a power-five player in the conference he grew up watching as a Wisconsin basketball fan.
If Ognacevic’s up and down—and at times frustrating—path indicated anything, it’s that this could never be easy. He knew that with his foot injury came a rapidly-ticking clock on his final season of college eligibility. He also knew that at some point he’d be back and that he had to be ready, though. It would be entirely out of character for Ognacevic to do anything else.
“I just wanted to bounce back the right way,” Ognacevic said. “It was tough but, I tried to keep it in perspective to like “whether I'm injured or not, I’m in a great position and I’ve got a great support system too that doesn't just care about basketball, they care about me as a person’ so I was just kinda know keeping it in perspective understanding that it could be a lot worse.”
Ognacevic returned near the day his initial timeline indicated he would on Jan. 14 against Michigan. The Washington forward has seen worse luck, he’s never seen a stretch like he did in his return from injury.
Prior to his arrival at Washington, Ognacevic’s final three conference games came against North Alabama, Queens and Central Arkansas. His first three at Washington; Michigan, Michigan State and Nebraska—all of which are AP Top 10 teams. This type of challenge is welcome for the Wisconsin native, though. This is what he signed up for when he decided to come back to BIG 10 country.
“It’s pretty cool with him having grown up in Wisconsin,” Ognacevic’s dad said. “To see him out there on the court, it's pretty fulfilling.”
Had Ognacevic opted to stay within the confines of ESPN + by following Acuff to Samford or sticking with Lipscomb coach Kevin Carroll, he would’ve never known if he could do what he’s doing these days. Ognacevic isn’t quite producing in the way he did a season ago as the ASUN’s best player, but he’s added significant bulk to his frame and has scored in double digits twice in his first four games.
As Washington’s schedule becomes lighter down the stretch, Ognacevic will find out how effective he truly can be at this level. Whatever happens, he will have an answer. He’ll leave nothing to the imagination.
If this ride has indicated anything, it’s that Ognacevic will emerge from the adversity and will do so with no self promotion. That’s who Ognacevic is, and he isn’t changing with the stage—although he is willing to acknowledge that he’s living a basketball dream that is more fulfilling than his introverted mannerisms would suggest.
“Growing up watching it on TV and then actually living it right now is super cool,” Ognacevic said in regard to the end of his college basketball journey. “It’s been a grind and it's been tough at times, but it's worked out great.”
