Serbian Star Conquers America, Stays to Help Clean Arena, Then Reveals to Sportal: "Then Jokić and Bogdanović Walked In…" /VIDEO/

"It's a huge honor to be the first Serbian woman to win the NCAA college basketball championship. As a child, I dreamed of winning this title. I've always wanted to share this moment with Serbia, with the Balkan people; it's a truly great honor for me." - Anđela Dugalić, UCLA basketball player and Serbian national team member

"I have a teammate who is Croatian, and she and I had the idea to dance… We had to film it quickly, so we didn't quite learn how to do the 'kolo' properly. I mean, she and I know, but our teammates still need to learn how to do it right. They prefer Vojaž and all that. I like newer songs, but when I was little, I listened to a lot of Ceca and our folk songs." - Anđela Dugalić, UCLA basketball player and Serbian national team member

"At the beginning of the season, I told the coach I would come off the bench instead of starting. It wasn't that important for me to start games… If they had asked me that last year or a few years ago, I wouldn't have wanted to accept not being a starter, but now it didn't bother me that much. At the end of the day, we all have the same goal for this team, and that's, of course, to win the title, not just the main title but also the conference and everything else. I started thinking about it myself when two new reinforcements arrived. I didn't want another teammate to feel bad because she wasn't playing, so I took on that role." - Anđela Dugalić, UCLA basketball player and Serbian national team member

"I knew that would be one thing I might win this year, and that's nice, of course, but again, for me, the most important thing was for us to win the title as a team." - Anđela Dugalić, UCLA basketball player and Serbian national team member

"It was incredibly tough mentally, to be honest. During that period, I didn't have many good days. My identity was so tied to basketball, and I didn't know who I was outside of the sport. My teammates helped me find myself outside of sports, which is why I stayed for a fifth and sixth year here in college. I didn't think about quitting basketball, but I was in a really bad place. Without going into too much detail, my family was in Chicago, and that was very hard for me… How have these injuries changed you? I feel like I've come back stronger, smarter, and more experienced. I think it gave me a different perspective on life and basketball. Before that injury, I wasn't very good at shooting, and then through that injury, I started shooting more threes, and it's going great. It took me some time, and it wasn't just physical. Honestly, physically, when I was coming back from the injury, it was much easier. Mentally, that's a different, tougher story…" - Anđela Dugalić, UCLA basketball player and Serbian national team member

"Yes, I'm looking forward to the draft and I'm very excited about all the opportunities coming my way. I'm still not sure which team I'll end up with; I'm talking to them and going for interviews, but nothing is definite yet. They already know my stats, so now they want to get to know me as a person. That's what I'm working on, and what I've been doing today. How did the conversations with the teams go? I think the conversations went well. I don't have a specific team I'd particularly like to play for, but let's say the only reason I'd want to stay in Los Angeles is that I've accumulated so many things over these six years that I don't know how I'd move it all somewhere else." - Anđela Dugalić, UCLA basketball player and Serbian national team member

"Yes, that's become my job in a way. I'm always the last one to leave the locker room; I've been doing it for several years, and it's become a kind of ritual for me. I think it shows that I'm a perfectly normal person. Of course, I want to celebrate, and I did celebrate with my teammates. I knew there would be time for that, but at that moment, I had a job that needed to be done (cleaning the arena). I'm a perfectionist in a way, and I pay a lot of attention to details, so it was a small thing I simply had to do." - Anđela Dugalić, UCLA basketball player and Serbian national team member

"She helped me a lot. Thanks to her, I'm on the national team. She and Danijel Pejdž found me. They are the reason I'm part of the national team and have the opportunity to play at such a high level. Did you ever have a dilemma about choosing which national team jersey to wear? I thought about it when I was younger. I've always followed the Serbian national team in all sports. Novak Đoković, for example, is my favorite athlete of all time. I often watched our female basketball players, and I still remember watching the Olympic Games in Rio when they won a bronze medal as a child; that completely thrilled me. I've always wanted to play with them. Of course, I also followed the Americans; they were also players I looked up to, but in my heart, there was always a desire to play for Serbia. Although I wasn't born there and sometimes struggle to express myself correctly, I know my blood flows from Serbia." - Anđela Dugalić, UCLA basketball player and Serbian national team member

"Not in America, but I did when I played in Paris. We had a flight from Serbia to Paris, and I thought we would be in a different part of the plane. Then the basketball players started coming in, Jokić, Bogdanović... They all sat next to me, they were playing some game together, and then I started playing with them. They are very good people, and I had a really nice experience with them. We played the game '20 Questions'." - Anđela Dugalić, UCLA basketball player and Serbian national team member

"Unfortunately, no. I've always wanted to talk to him… but I met him in Tokyo in 2021 at the Games. Did any Serbian athletes congratulate you on the title? Bogdanović did, which was really nice of him… And my teammates too, and a few other athletes, I really received a lot of messages." - Anđela Dugalić, UCLA basketball player and Serbian national team member

"Yes, I enjoy it; I like these kinds of conversations. However, sometimes I have to think carefully about what I say because I'm afraid of using the wrong word. That already happened to me once during an interview. We were at Knez, I don't know why they chose me… I don't remember exactly what they asked me, but instead of saying 'excited,' I said 'disappointed.' I don't know why I said that, but since then, I've had a little fear of public appearances." - Anđela Dugalić, UCLA basketball player and Serbian national team member

"The draft is on Monday… For now, that's my plan, and then when the season ends, I plan to play in Europe. I don't know for which team yet. I'd like to play for Fenerbahçe in Turkey, in Milan in Italy, France... and then one day return to play for Serbia. My family supports Zvezda, so I'd love to play for Zvezda someday." - Anđela Dugalić, UCLA basketball player and Serbian national team member