TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — As Wildcat fans are riding the Big 12 Conference regular-season champions high, the men’s basketball team is still battling for a top seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament, and Freshman Ivan Kharchenkov already has his mind on the post-season matches.
“The real pros, they know what it takes to win,” he said. “And I’m a winner.”
Kharchenkov is a real professional. At just 16 years old, he put on his first professional jersey for FC Bayern Munich’s senior basketball team, though he’d been training with the junior team since he was 12.
Now stateside, the forward is no stranger to the grit it takes to chase down a championship. When he sat down with KGUN days after the Wildcats were crowned Big 12 Conference regular-season champions, Kharchenkov already had his mind on the games ahead.
“We don’t need to prep for 64 teams. That’s the good thing,” he said. “We only have to prep [for] the teams you play against. We’ll prep for them, and then hopefully we’ll win, and then we’ll prep for the next one, hopefully we win again, and then just copy and paste.”
The 6-foot-7 freshman hit the court running when he came to Arizona, starting every game the University of Arizona has played so far. Coach Tommy Lloyd said he knew Kharchenkov would be a “seasoned” player. As the season came to a close, he credited the 19-year-old’s instincts for helping the team reach the top of their conference.
“He’s been able to really kind of impact the play off the ball as well as on the ball,” Lloyd said.
Kharchenkov ranks in the top five on the team for blocks, steals, rebounds—both defensive and offensive—and overall points, all of which exceed the team average. Though he says the game isn’t about the numbers.
“I could lock down a good player that you know fumbled the ball a couple of times. I didn’t get a steal for it in the stat sheet, but it still made their life hell, and he had to pass it off,” he said. “You probably won’t find that in my stats, but on a good player’s stats on the other team, maybe he shot like six for 25. That’s stats that are applying to me and what I did. I don’t see stats as all in all. That’s not real basketball for me.”
Instead, despite the competitive nature, Kharchenkov still sees each game as “fun,” and followers of the team can tell. He’s often egging on the crowd, hyping up fans and inviting them to join in on the energy.
“I talk to them, they talk to me back, but like I’m screaming, and they’re screaming louder,” he said, adding that one of his favorite parts of playing NCAA ball is the fan culture.
“Everywhere I go, they notice me,” he said. “That’s really cool, and I love that they’re not shy to ask for a picture or a signature or whatever.”
However, Kharchenkov’s first season regular-season in the States hasn’t been without its challenges.
“The challenge for him is staying disciplined,” Lloyd said. “He’s maybe had moments where he got a little undisciplined in his want of more for a steal or something with his positioning, and you know our team has paid for it. So, it’s just for him to get back to ‘day one’ habits that we teach. That’s really hard to do because, why is he undisciplined? Because he wants more. Why does he want more? For our team to be successful.”
Kharchenkov agreed with his coach, saying sometimes he gets “greedy” in the game, but he’s constantly working to return to the basics, his fundamental skills, while keeping his head up.
“I learned, especially when playing back in overseas in Europe, not to make it too personal because then it will eat you from inside out,” he said. “Just take it easy, and don’t be too focused on that because I probably also did a couple—or a lot of good things in comparison to the things I didn’t do too well.”
With the wildcats on the road for the remainder of their season, Kharchenkov says he’ll miss parts of his new home: McKale, hometown fans, and, when the season ends, the team that he says came to feel like family.
Now facing the final month of play in his first season in the United States, Kharchenkov’s focus is on winning a title for his newfound family.
“Of course, I just want to win, whatever it takes,” he said. “If you have to play 30 minutes, if you have to play 10 minutes, if you have to guard the best guy and just die on the floor. I will do that just so we get the championship.”
Kharchenkov and the Wildcats will face their first opponents in the Big 12 Conference tournament as the team battles for a top seed in March. They’re slated to play the winner of Wednesday’s UCF vs. Cincinnati match.
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Alex Dowd is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9, where her work combines her two favorite hobbies: talking to new people and learning about the community around her. Her goal is to eventually meet every single person in Tucson. Share your story ideas with Alex via email, alex.dowd@kgun9.com, or connecting on Instagram or X.
