The stakes are big this time of year in college basketball. It’s called March Madness and fans will cheer and cry for their teams over the next month.
But there are no real-life consequences like those facing the family of San Francisco center Volodymyr Markovetskyy. The 7-foot-2 sophomore comes from the small Ukrainian town of Truskavets, located about 300 miles west of Kyiv, the country’s capital city.
Markovetskyy’s homeland is under attack from neighboring Russia, an invasion that began 10 days ago and has become its own horrific brand of March Madness.
“It’s a pretty difficult situation he’s trying to navigate through right now,” USF coach Todd Golden said after the Dons’ win over BYU on Saturday night in the University Credit Union West Coast Conference Tournament.
Vovo, as his coaches and teammates call him, is with the Dons in Las Vegas, preparing to face top-ranked Gonzaga in the tournament semifinals on Monday and potentially on his way to an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
He played 15 minutes against the Cougars, more than double his usual time on the floor, and produced three points, four rebounds and a blocked shot. The game’s final box score showed the Dons were plus-12 points when Markovetskyy was in the game.
It’s impressive the young man can even focus on basketball right now. Golden said Markovetskyy’s mother and sister have escaped the country to Lithuania. But his father works in law enforcement and remains in Ukraine as Russia exerts its aggression.
“His father’s on the ground there in Ukraine protecting his homeland, and has so much pride in being Ukrainian that he’s not going to leave until this war is over,” Golden said. “Vovo’s been playing with a lot on his shoulders here the last week and a half since this all started.
“Being an adult, it’s still very hard for me to try to put myself in his position, knowing that it’s very uncertain what’s going on back home.”
BYU coach Mark Pope has not met Markovetskyy, who came to USF before this season as a transfer from Washington State. But he said what the 21-year-old is dealing with provides a stark contrast to playing basketball, even in March.
“I’m far from a political scientist but we use words all the time like `fight’ and `battle’ and we get to do it in the safe confines of the (basketball) court, with referees and fans,” Pope said. “From a distance, what these people in Ukraine have gone through is sobering and terrifying, to say the least. It’s also incredibly inspiring.
“The weirdness of the world right now is we get to watch people in real time make life or death commitments to fight for their country. So I just can’t imagine how sobering that is. I don’t know him or his family but certainly our prayers are with them because what’s going on right now is really, really real.”
Golden hopes and believes that basketball provides Markovetskyy with at least a brief detour from what must otherwise be constant worry. “This is a little bit of an outlet for him, a couple hours a day where he’s thinking about something else other than what’s going on at home.”
If Markovetskyy wasn’t feeling up to playing, he’d be excused with the coach’s blessing. “It’s a pretty crazy situation but I’m super-proud of him for the way he’s continued to push through,” Golden said.
On Saturday night at Orleans Arena, in perhaps the Dons’ biggest of the season, Vovo made a difference.
“He was phenomenal tonight,” Golden said afterward. “He impacted the game in so many ways. He only scored three points, but he was ridiculous defensively, clogged everything up, was good on the defensive glass, had a huge dunk late that I thought really kind of a put an exclamation on it.”
In the locker room after the Dons’ 75-63 victory that improved their record of 24-8, Vovo’s teammates celebrated the contributions he made under conditions few have experienced.
“It was really a special moment because his teammates all rallied around him, gave him a big hug and he was in tears,” Golden said. “I’m really glad for him that he had this moment where he was so impactful in such a big game with everything that’s going on.”