Mark Pope officially announces signing of Andrija Jelavic: "He cannot wait to wear a Kentucky jersey."
Andrija Jelavic (pronounced an-dree-ah yell-uh-vich) is officially a Kentucky Wildcat.
On Monday morning, UK announced the signing of Jelavic to the 2025-26 Kentucky men’s basketball roster. The 6-foot-11 stretch forward from Croatia was a surprise commitment to the Wildcats on April 12. He currently plays for Mega Subertbet in the Adriatic League overseas, where he’s averaging 11.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.0 steals per game.
“Andrija is a really skilled, athletic, mobile, veteran player who has been playing at a high level for the last two years,” Kentucky head coach Mark Pope said in UK’s press release. “He’s been mentored through the development program at Mega, which is one of the best development centers for great players in Europe. Andrija has a really unique combination of size, athleticism and skill that will translate seamlessly into our system.
“When we did our Zoom, you could see the emotion on his face of how much Kentucky means to him and that he cannot wait to wear a Kentucky jersey.“
Jelavic is still playing basketball as Mega Superbet wrapped up its regular season over the weekend. The postseason begins this Sunday in Serbia.
Jelavic, who turns 21 years old later this month and possesses a 7-foot-2 wingspan, looks to be a perfect fit for Pope’s system. He can shoot from deep, but is also quick and agile with the ball on the perimeter for someone his size. That quickness, combined with plenty of length, also makes him a plus-defender.
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“[His greatest strengths] are his size, finishing, handling, and rebounding,” Arman Jovic, a scout with PDT Scouting, recently told KSR+. “He can do a lot in the offense. He can play into that Andrew Carr role as a multi-positional stretch big.”
With multiple years under his belt playing against professionals in a respected international league, Jelavic could come straight to Lexington with a high-usage role. There’s plenty of reason to be excited about the skilled and talented international big man.
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