When former Madison West star Reece Gaines turned down the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team's scholarship offer to go to Louisville nearly 11 years ago, the Badgers filled the roster spot with an unknown from New Zealand named Kirk Penney.

When former Fond du Lac standout Travis Diener picked Marquette over Wisconsin two years later, the Badgers handed the scholarship to an up-and-comer from Wauwatosa East named Devin Harris.

Duje Dukan and his family and friends certainly are hoping history repeats itself after the Deerfield, Ill., forward on Tuesday accepted a scholarship offer to play for the Badgers. The team was looking to add another player from the class of 2010 after being spurned a few weeks ago by Madison Memorial guard Vander Blue.

Penney and Harris, after all, are two of the best and winningest players in the history of the program.

"I hope we hit the trifecta," said an elated Deerfield High School coach Bret Just after Dukan made his decision one day before the start of the one-week fall period that allows high school athletes to sign national letters of intent.

What the 6-foot-8, 190-pound Dukan, whose first name is pronounced Due-YAY, shares in common with Harris and Penney is a knack for putting the ball in the hoop from inside and outside. He also has an ability to play both forward positions and at least one guard position. Those are big keys for UW coach Bo Ryan's swing offense.

"When you are that size and can shoot it and handle it a little bit and pass, you obviously have a chance," said Just. "He also has that mentality where if he misses a shot he's going to take that next one and not think twice about it. That doesn't always happen."

While some have said Dukan is similar to former UW forward Zach Morley, Dukan prefers to compare himself to Toronto Raptors forward Hedo Turkoglu.

"He's a big guy who posts up the little guys who guard him and the bigger guys he takes out and comes off ball screens and creates for his players," explained Dukan, who averaged 18 points and nine rebounds a game and shot close to 46 percent from three-point range as a junior last season.

Dukan's skill set is so strong that he drew late interest from Virginia and Florida before eventually choosing Wisconsin over Arizona State, New Mexico and George Washington.

"I briefly talked to coach (Tony) Bennett from Virginia. But we were so far down the process that it was kind of hard to get involved with new schools because we wanted to make an early signing," Dukan said.

Bennett obviously saw the same qualities that Wisconsin coaches saw. For instance, Dukan's intangibles are off the charts.

He has great instincts and a high basketball IQ partly because his father is the lead international scout for the Chicago Bulls. Dukan spent a great deal of time around the Bulls when they were winning world championships.

"He's always quick to point things out or make suggestions. He has a very advanced knowledge of the game for a kid his age. He's been around," said Just. "Look who he grew up watching as a ball boy. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen. You can't get better than that."

So Dukan is like a coach's kid in many respects. "It definitely was a blessing to be around some of the best teams to play the game and see what they did, in their off time, how they worked," said Dukan. "I would definitely consider myself a coach's kid because you get exposed to stuff a normal kid doesn't get exposed to."

Dukan flew under the recruiting radar screens because he was a late bloomer who grew six inches over the past three years. He also spent many of his summers in his native Croatia so he didn't have much AAU exposure during his early high school years.

Just said more college coaches started showing up last winter and spring during open gyms at Dukan's high school. That's when Wisconsin showed up. By summer, when Blue was still waffling over his choice, the UW coaches told Dukan they'd offer him if Blue went elsewhere.

"I wasn't worried about the situation. I thought about it as Vander Blue going there. So I wasn't focused on Wisconsin. I was looking at my other options," said Dukan."But when he didn't commit, I was definitely fortunate and happy that I could have the opportunity to play for them."

But Dukan still had decisions to make. He made a one-day trip to Madison last Wednesday before spending three days on a visit to Arizona State last weekend. He admitted it was tough to say no to the Sun Devils.

"But in the end, the minute I walked into the Kohl Center I felt like this could be my home," he said.

Dukan would have drawn even more interest if he was stronger. But Just doesn't think he's very far away from where he needs to be to excel in the college game.

"He's not physically where he's going to be in a couple of years. When he gets in the weight room in Madison and puts on some pounds and muscle, it's going to aid his explosiveness," Just said.

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