FAYETTEVILLE — Even 21 years removed from his Arkansas playing days, Davor Rimac still gets a thrill stepping into Bud Walton Arena.
Rimac, a Croatian native and a key reserve on the Razorbacks’ 1994 national championship team, arrived in Fayetteville earlier this week and is visiting through July 13. It is the second trip back in three years after being away for 18 years for Rimac, who was a 6-foot-7 forward and now lives in his birthplace of Zagreb, where he works as an IT Specialist and design technology teacher at the International School of Zagreb.
“It was just like an overwhelming feeling,” Rimac said Thursday. “I haven’t been back and you kind of had it in the back of your mind that is where you went through such a critical portion of your life.
“It really looks amazing still. I stood there and just thought about how amazing it was to have it full all the time with people, even during practice times like Midnight Madness when we would have 18,000 to 20,000 people.
“I tell people the story back home and they don’t believe me.”
Rimac played for Fayetteville High from 1989-1991 and the Razorbacks from 1991-95 during one of the most successful periods in Arkansas basketball history. Under head coach Nolan Richardson, Rimac's teams were a combined 113-27.
Rimac's career included two trips to the Final Four and the school’s only basketball national title with players such as Corliss Williamson, Scotty Thurman and Corey Back leading the way.
“I remember all the practices, all the good times, all the bad times and there were far more good times than bad times,” Rimac said.
“I was lucky enough to be on a team with such a great coach in Nolan Richardson and his staff in (then assistant and current head) Coach Mike Anderson and Coach Brad Dunn and with guys that were not only great basketball players, but ones that were simply like family.
“I found out later in my playing career in pro ball how important it is to be close together as a family on the court and outside the court sometimes more than having just quality individual players.”
In his Arkansas career, Rimac scored 257 points and grabbed 109 rebounds while hitting 44 percent from the field, 35.8 percent from 3-point range and 86.1 percent from the three throw line.
He hit two big 3-pointers in Arkansas’ 90-82 win at Kentucky in 1994 – a top five national matchup that snapped the Wildcats' 33-game home win streak.
Rimac also cherishes his national championship ring that was earned later that season when Arkansas beat college basketball heavyweights Georgetown, Michigan and Arizona, before beating Duke 76-72 in the title game in Charlotte, N.C.
“There was no one on that team that was just thinking of themselves first,” Rimac said. “Everyone played inside of their capabilities 80 to 90 percent of the time…Everybody played to their strengths and the key guys were able to rest throughout the game, get their composure and get back in and produce.
“We all knew we were going to play, knew what we had to do. Coach Richardson always said that if you come to practice and give me 100 percent no matter how you many times you mess up in the games, I will put you back in.
“I think that was a huge think for a player to have this in the back of his head. And if the player was honest enough to know that he couldn’t loaf it around in practice and then do it 100 percent in the game, he would be successful.
“I learned that from my mom, who was a great player. She said, 'You have to practice how you play in the games. You can’t just go through the motions and expect it to happen.'"
Ironically, it may have been the fact that Rimac was a great tennis player as a youth that ended up leading him to Fayetteville. He came to Richardson’s basketball camp and to Arkansas tennis camps, and decided that he could do both in high school if he moved to Fayetteville.
“I didn’t know what to expect and just came for the camps,” Rimac said. “I really had a great time, loved the drills and the games and then at the end of the day I played pick-up with (former Razorbacks) Oliver Miller and Todd Day, and those guys were great players.
“That was a great two weeks and when the idea came up that maybe I could come back and go to high school. It seemed great. I played tennis and basketball parallel and since the seasons were divided here, I could probably do both.
“So my family and I decided I wanted to go, learn the language and see how it is and it was a fun time. I ended up staying two years and then got recruited and of course I am going to stay here because people were so nice and welcoming.”
Rimac averaged over 30 points a game while scoring a school-record 1,245 points in his two seasons at Fayetteville High and also won the state tennis singles titles a senior.
He lived with Richardson and his wife Rose his first year and with teammate Tommy Hinton and his family as a senior when other colleges and the NCAA decided that Arkansas had a massive recruiting advantage with him.
The Richardsons lost their daughter Yvonne to leukemia a year earlier and Rimac’s presence brought Rose out of a depressive state.
“My wife had not gotten in a car,'' Richardson told Sports Illustrated in 1994. ''I talked with doctors and they said it might be good to have Rimac live with us. It would get her back to PTA meetings.''
Rimac's dad, Matan, coached former Richardson and Tulsa player David Brown on his professional roster in Switzerland, so there was a connection to the Richardson family. Rimac remembers well the bond he forged with Rose.
''We helped each other,'' Rimac said. “She spent a lot of time teaching me what to expect in the United States, and I'd like to think I helped her get more involved in life.
“With both the Richardsons and the Hintons, they would get on me when I did something wrong and praise me when I did something good. I consider them my family and I still consider Fayetteville my second home.”
Back in Arkansas, Rimac has been able to see old friends and teammates this week like Hinton, Justin Tennant and Scotty Thurman, and will see more next week.
Facebook has made it easier to keep up with his old teammates and friends despite being several time zones away.
“They are a part of my life,” Rimac said. “I consider myself part-American. I came here when I was 16 and left when I was 23, so those were some very formative years for me and it is the part of your life when you make the most development and progress.”
Rimac’s mom passed away in 1996 and he spent five years playing professionally in Croatia, but decided to leave basketball and enter the work force.
It was at that time that he met a woman, one that he would end up having a 17-year relationship with before it dissolved.
But love is in the air again for Rimac, who is now engaged and has plans to get married next season at which point she will move to Zagreb or he will move to Istanbul.
“Or who knows, we might just move here,” Rimac said. “I spent seven years here and just love the place.”
He does admit that it looks a bit different than in the early 1990s.
“It’s amazing,” Rimac said. “Where you once had fields or old houses now you have apartment buildings. It seems like the university has grown so much. I heard there is now 27,000 students and that’s like more than double what it was when I was here.
“Also the places up north like Rogers and Bentonville have grown so much. You can tell there is a lot of people have moved into the area and it’s really nice.
“I am going to try and make it a more regular stop from now on because I do love it here.”
Rimac has been working out this week at the year-old Arkansas Performance Center, a practice facility that Arkansas did not during his playing days when the paint was still wet inside Bud Walton Arena.
“It’s just wonderful,” Rimac said. “These guys here now are so lucky and I know it is going to help their development.”
Rimac has seen the current Razorback team work out and likes what he sees on the roster that Anderson had accumulated for next season.
“I like the talent they have and the guys are working hard,” Rimac said. “I see they are also staying together after practice, joking around and also doing things together.
“I also think Coach A is a great coach and has a great staff. With these facilities and stuff, I don’t think they are going to have any program getting back on a higher level where even the bigger schools will be worried about playing them.
“I think the future is bright from what I have seen. I really happy for them and glad that I was once a part of this.”