Baptized in basketball at a young age, Ivan Kharchenkov's fire burns all over the court

By making history as the youngest player ever to jump into Germany’s top-level Bundesliga three seasons ago at age 16, Ivan Kharchenkov also made himself a target.

That part of it still burns at him.

DeWayne Russell, a former Peoria High School, NAU and GCU guard who turned into the Bundesliga’s leading scorer for EWE Baskets Oldenburg in 2022-23, set his intentions firmly on Kharchenkov once Bayern Munich threw the rookie into a game late that season that had no bearing on the standings.

Munich assigned Kharchenkov to guard another player, but Oldenburg coaches opportunistically made sure Russell wound up right in his face anyway. Or blurring by it, anyway.

“Yeah, he had a couple of points on me. Let’s put it that way,” Kharchenkov said, smiling faintly at the memory. “They switched on me and said `We want to go at him.’ From that point on, I was like, `OK, that can’t happen again.’"

Three seasons later, playing on a different continent for Arizona men's basketball, Kharchenkov's memory helped make sure something like that didn’t happen again.

In Arizona's 97-68 win over Auburn last Saturday, Kharchenkov was assigned to be the primary defender on Auburn’s leading scorer, Keyshawn Hall, a veteran inside-outside scoring machine. The 22-year-old Hall is in his fourth college season, at his fourth college, and had even played well at McKale Center before, scoring 22 points for UCF against the Wildcats last season.

This time, Hall entered McKale averaging 21.8 points and 9.1 rebounds. Then he had 13 points and four rebounds against Kharchenkov and the Wildcats, a big reason why Arizona blew out the then-20th-ranked Tigers.

“I mean, they got freshmen that look like juniors and football players out there,” Auburn coach Steven Pearl said, likely referring to Kharchenkov and teammate Koa Peat. “They got grown-ass men out there.”

Told of Pearl’s comments, Kharchenkov was nearly expressionless.

This is just the way it is. The way his 6-foot-7, 220-pound — and 19-year-old frame is now wired.

“Back in Europe, I always got told 'First thing you have to do is play defense so you can play at the next level,'” Kharchenkov said. “I had to play defense, be physical or quicker. Especially when I was younger, I was playing with men and in professional basketball, so this was my goal, to be physically ready so I could get minutes.”

That’s why, not long after Russell welcomed him to high-level basketball at the end of that 2022-23 season, Kharchenkov was back at it. That spring, summer and fall in 2023, Kharchenkov said he worked out in the weight room three times a week, always in the mornings just before school started.

He was still 16 that offseason, at an age when elite American players are typically on the club-ball circuit, focusing sometimes more on offense and showmanship than any defensive grind.

“I’m always trying to play up to my standards anywhere I go and I feel like playing defense, you can do that wherever, whenever,” Kharchenkov said. “It’s just kind of a mindset thing. (With) shooting, some days your shot will fall. Some days it won't. But playing with the right energy, playing with the right mindset, defensively … there’s also a little ego thing, like 'you're not gonna score on me.’"

Basically, Kharchenkov learned to make defense his show. For two more seasons with Bayern Munich in 2023-24 and 2024-25, splitting time between its senior and junior clubs, Kharchenkov showed enough promise that the club tried to lock him up with a three-year contract that began last season.

But Kharchenkov said he was still typically the 11th player on the roster to get on the floor last season, when he averaged 12.5 minutes in the Bundesliga and 7.6 minutes in Euroleague games.

“I was like the guy who jumps in if somebody's sick or hurt or is getting rest because maybe we are playing not the best team,” Kharchenkov said.

Kharchenkov ached for more. He asked his agent to help find a new home, to help him get minutes and move his career along.

How could he shut somebody down, after all, if he can’t get on the court and in front of him?

By late last spring, Kharchenkov's contract was bought out, and he was on his way to Arizona. He said he heard good things about UA coach Tommy Lloyd from Bayern Munich teammate Elias Harris, a German native who played at Gonzaga from 2009-10 to 2012-13, when Lloyd was an assistant for the Zags.

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Also, Kharchenkov watched video of the Wildcats and saw a few familiar things.

“I was told that he plays a little European style,” Kharchenkov said. “When I watched the clips, I definitely saw it, especially with the two bigs at the same time.”

Upon his arrival at Arizona, Lloyd had Kharchenkov watching a few more clips. Especially those featuring comparably sized and skilled Swedish wing Pelle Larsson, who developed into a versatile player able to make plays or shoot — and defend just about anyone on the other side of the floor.

"Swiss Army knives," they call players like that, Larsson and maybe now Kharchenkov.

“It's huge, because it just gives you a lot of options," Lloyd said of Kharchenkov's production against Auburn. "When you have somebody who you can put on another team's leading scorer, who can give you multiple looks on defense, who can give you a ball screen coverage ... He can switch, he can get through screens, he can guard a post. Those are really valuable things.

“And then offensively, if those guys have some playmaking ability, which Ivan has and is really starting to show, it just really connects your offense and makes it so much easier, takes so much pressure off your point guard's hands.”

Lloyd said Larsson and Dalen Terry have both played that role for his Arizona teams, and NBA scouts noticed. Terry became the 18th pick of the 2022 NBA Draft to the Bulls, while Larsson went 44th in 2024 to the Heat.

Behind the scenes, Kharchenkov has also flashed another skill that could help his resume, this one also born from grit and determination: He played that Auburn game despite having suffered a significant lateral ankle sprain a week earlier against Norfolk State.

Kharchenkov began immediately rehabilitating the injury during the rest of the Norfolk game — UA trainer Justin Kokoskie said that's why he did not return the floor that evening — and continued almost nonstop for the next four days before rejoining the Wildcats in practice just two days before the Auburn game.

Kokoskie estimated Kharchenkov did 14 hours of rehab work one day and even slept in his boot.

“Does stuff nonstop. Savage,”  Kokoskie said. “You just don’t see that from kids this age very often. He conducts himself like a pro.”

This is apparently nothing new. The son of parents who both played professionally in Russia before moving to Germany when he was just a 1-year-old, Kharchenkov said he told them at about age 10 that he, too, wanted to be a pro and was willing to do the steps his mother outlined to become one.

“From that point on, it was pretty clear my goal was always to get to the NBA,” Kharchenkov said.

Kharchenkov could be there before long. Already, Kharchenkov has moved up to No. 52 on ESPN’s Top 100 NBA Draft prospects, suggesting he could be in the mix for a second-round pick next June.

But Kharchenkov indicated he's in no rush. There are steps to take. That 2023 Munich-Oldenburg game was one, the Auburn game was another.

There could be more.

“I don't like putting, like, timetables on myself,” Kharchenkov said. “I’m just working on myself getting better. My timetable is looking like 'What did I do yesterday? What did I do last year or two weeks ago? How much did I get better from that?'

“If it goes this year, great. If it doesn't go this year, also great. I have more time to work with myself. I get to be more seasoned when the time comes.”