Walker Announces A Pair of International Additions
Little Rock head coach Darrell Walker has announced a pair of additions to the Trojan basketball roster. Marko Andric, of Belgrade, Serbia, and Yacine Toumi, of Meudon, France, have both signed letters of intent and will join the program as freshmen this summer.
Both Andric and Toumi bring impressive resumes at the international level as both have been members of their respective national teams. With their additions, Little Rock will add to a roster that already spans the globe as the Trojans will head into the 2020-21 season with six international players on the team.
“I’m very excited to bring these two players to Little Rock and add them to our team,” said Walker. “We were fortunate with everything going on with the epidemic that we only had two spots to fill, and we were able to fill needs that we had. I wanted another true point guard, and we got that, and I wanted an athletic player with some length, and we got that. There will be a learning curve for both of them as they are both freshmen, but with the talent level they both have, they’ll fit right in with what we’re building here.”
Andric competed for BC Mega Bemax in 2019-20 as part of the Adriatic Basketball Association. He has been a member of the Serbian FIBA National team for the past seasons, winning a bronze medal at the 2017 European Championships in Montenegro. Andric won U15 and U17 National Championships with BC Mega Bemax while finishing second on U18 Euroleague Adidas Next Gen Tournament in Spain.
“Marko is a true point guard that is all about running the team and helping out his teammates,” Walker said. “We need that depth, and I think he’s going to be a real good backup to Markquis (Nowell) early in his career as he continues to learn and develop. He’s athletic, he thinks the game, and he has a very high basketball IQ. If you can play on your country’s national team, you’re a pretty good player.”
Toumi competed at Lee Academy in Lee, Maine, as a senior. He also competed at the Impact Basketball Academy In Sarasota, Florida. Toumi is a native of Tunisia and competed on the Tunisian National Team in the FIBA U18 African Championships, where the team placed seventh.
“He’s an athletic 6-9 player that will need to find John Barron in the weight room once he gets here,” Walker said. “But he’s very skilled, very athletic, and shoots the ball pretty solid. He has a real upside and we’re lucky to be able to get a player with his length and wingspan. He can put the ball on the floor and can play multiple positions so he will add some depth to a number of players right away.”
Little Rock is coming off a season for the ages in 2019-20, putting together one of the best turnarounds in Division I basketball. The Trojans captured the Sun Belt regular-season championship by two games and posted a 21-10 record after a 10-21 campaign in 2018-19. Little Rock was one of just two teams in the nation that won its respective league title after being picked 11th in the preseason poll.
