Kentucky coach Mark Pope bolstered next year’s roster by getting a commitment from Andrjia Jelavic. (Vicky Graff Photo)
It’s hard to pull off a recruiting surprise when it comes to Kentucky basketball, but coach Mark Pope and his staff did that on Saturday.
ESPN’s Jonathan Givony reported that 6-11 power forward Andrija Jelavic, one of the top European prospects in his age group, committed to Kentucky, according to his agent, Misko Raznatovic of Beobasket.
Jelavic, who will be 21 next month, has significant international experience. According to ESPN, he has already played 53 games for Belgrade, Serbia-based Mega Superbet in the competitive Adriatic League over the last two seasons. He averaged 10.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.2 steals in 30 minutes per game while shooting 62 percent from 2-point range.
Givony, an NBA draft analyst for ESPN, reported that Jelavic has a 7-foot-2 wingspan, excellent mobility, and the “versatility and skill to slide all over the floor on both ends.” He has 52 3-pointers in his 53 games the past two seasons.
“Jelavic’s commitment continues a significant change that is underway in the college basketball world with the proliferation of name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals, which has allowed international players to sign seven-figure deals in some instances, completely altering the European basketball market and NCAA recruiting landscape,” Givony wrote.
20 Responses
Atta boy coach..
Say good-bye to Garrison.
maybe not, shall see
Garrison is staying.. you may get something right one of these times.
Glad Garrison finally silenced doubters by saying he is staying but kind of weird he has to announce he is staying to make some believe
Hope we keep Garrison, but after watching this guy’s film, I would make the trade.
The Nike Hoop Summit is on usa network at 10:00 p.m. You can get a look at Johnson and Merano. Ament will be playing also.
Hope we don’t go through the ordeal we went through with Big Z with this guy.
Big Z was just a freshman, this guy is 21
Don’t have to worry about eligibility anymore. As long as he’s smart enough to get in. With NIL it doesn’t matter if he got paid. Everybody gets paid now. He’s a 21 year old with 4 yrs of eligibility. Checked him out on YouTube and he looked pretty damn good.
Problem with Z was not money he received Jimmy but fact he did not meet college entrance requirements initially and did not do all the testing required academically
Thank you
I thought some money he got was the main problem. My bad Larry V. I did mention if he is smart enough to get in. Hopefully Pope checked his academic eligibility before taking his committement. Z was a mess and there were others that got in right away.
Glad to hear Garrison is coming back..
I am too. He has a lot of upside and hopefully will grow into some of that this season. My source said he was not happy with Pope going after another big, but then was reminded to look at what Florida did with the slew of bigs that they had. Garrison knew word had got out that he was thinking about leaving so he put that to rest. As for me being wrong, that’s nothing new, I just share what I hear, but in the basketball world it doesn’t mean that it’s gospel. I hope he keeps working on his 3 point shot, but his 6 foot shot needs more work too. He needs to focus more on rebounding as well. Giving up second and third chance shots really hurt us last year. He could be a double double machine this year. We still could use one more really big guy, a 7 foot plus guy weighing in at 260+. He is out there, maybe Pope will find him.
It continues to amaze me that many of these mid and lower schools are able to attract decent, and many times good 6’10"-7′ guys while we normally struggle in that range.
Good point Mike. It may be that these were just average guys who got coached up? The real talent may be the coaches at these schools?
Good point Mike. It may be that these were just average guys who got coached up? The real talent may be the coaches at these schools? Maybe these coaches beat the bushes that the bluebloods simply ignore?
Betcha Ament winds up with Cal – UK & Duke are already loaded up. Hesitation will cost him some good times and great experiences.
Garrison will be the starting center next year and be much better. I love the Croation but i think it will take some time for him to be dominant in college maybe a year. Lowe/Wilkerson/Oweh/JQ/Garrison. Can you say unstoppable. Backups Chandler/Johnson/Williams/Dioubote/Moreno
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