In recent years, UCLA men’s basketball coach Mick Cronin has been vocal and critical about changes to the sport such as Name, Image and Likeness and the transfer portal. Still, Cronin has adapted and looked everywhere for players, including overseas.
On Thursday, the Bruins signed Nikola Kusturica, a 6-foot-9 guard from Serbia and the best international prospect Cronin has landed since arriving at UCLA in 2019. Kusturica, who turned 17 on April 30, agreed to a multiyear deal with the Bruins, per ESPN’s Jeff Borzello, who reported Kusturica also considered Kentucky, Michigan and Gonzaga.
Kusturica is seen as the potential No. 1 pick in the 2028 NBA draft. He could have been a lottery selection in next year’s draft, but he is too young to meet the eligibility requirements.
At the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup this month, Kusturica averaged 24.6 points, 6.9 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 1.7 blocks per game and shot 46.8% from the field, including 26% on 3-pointers. He was chosen for the tournament’s All-Star Five team alongside Team USA’s Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje and Beckham Black, Turkiye guard Omer Kutluay and Australian guard Luke Paul. He was named the event’s best defensive player, too.
In the championship game, Kusturica had 37 points and nine rebounds and made 9 of 23 shots and 17 of 22 free throws, although Serbia lost 107-81 to a dominant U.S. team that went undefeated and won its games by an average of more than 48 points. Team USA featured several of the nation’s best high school players, as well as Boumtje Boumtje, a 6-foot-11 forward who will play this coming season for Duke.
Boumtje Boumtje, who turned 17 on May 30, won’t be eligible for the NBA draft until 2028, just like Kusturica, his teammate at FC Barcelona in Spain last season. While most top NBA prospects spend only a year in college, Boumtje Boumtje and Kusturica will likely play in college for two seasons and become household names before entering the league.
At UCLA, Kusturica should start right away and be the team’s top scorer and player. The Bruins return three players who saw significant time last season in guard Trent Perry (12.6 points point per game) and forwards Eric Dailey Jr. (11.6 points per game) and Xavier Booker (7.3 points per game). They also signed two high school recruits in center Javonte Floyd and power forward Joe Philon and four transfers in forwards Filip Jovic (Auburn) and Sergej Macura (Mississippi State) and guards Jaylen Petty (Texas Tech) and Azavier Robinson (Butler). They have another international prospect in Gunars Grinvalds, a 6-foot-7 forward who turned 18 in January and played last season for Real Madrid in Spain.
Still, Kusturica is clearly the jewel of the class. Although he has never lived in the United States, he is familiar with Nemanja Jovanovic, UCLA’s director of international recruiting. Jovanovic is a Serbian native and assistant coach for the Serbian men’s national team.
With Kusturica aboard, Cronin will look to get UCLA back to where it was early in his tenure. The Bruins made the Final Four as a No. 11 seed in 2021, Cronin’s second season, and lost in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16 in 2022 and 2023 when the Bruins won 27 and 31 games, respectively. But after missing the NCAAs in 2024, the Bruins lost in the second round the past two seasons. Now, UCLA enters the season on an unexpected high note thanks to the addition of Kusturica, a player college basketball and NBA fans will become familiar with over the next two years.
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