Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Pope is treating himself well after pulling off the biggest recruiting win of his tenure in Lexington. Former Iowa State star Milan Momcilovic withdrew from the NBA draft and chose Kentucky over finalists like Louisville and Arizona.
Momcilovic commanded NIL offers in the $5-7 million range. Kentucky reportedly landed him for $6 million as they came out on top in a fierce bidding war.
Days after landing a high-profile star, Pope shared a photo from a beach where he is having a drink in one hand and talking on a phone with the other. He is under the shade of the umbrella with the ocean/sea in the backdrop. It seems to suggest that Pope is relaxing after a massive financial and roster coup.
Momcilovic shot 48.7% from three on a nation-leading 7.5 attempts per game. He averaged 16.9 points per game last season at Iowa State. He is almost tailor-made for Pope’s spacing-heavy system.
Milan Momcilovic Always Had Mark Pope’s Kentucky In Mind
Milan Momcilovic entered the transfer portal with a “do not contact” tag. While in most cases, it means a player already has a team in mind where he wants to transfer, but in this case, Momcilovic simply didn’t want to be bothered.
Earlier during the pre-draft process, Momcilovic acknowledged Kentucky was one of the teams in consideration if he decided to drop out of the 2026 NBA draft.
“There’s not a lot of schools that still have a lot of money and a lot of roster spots left,” Momcilovic said. “So it’s not like I’m choosing between 15 schools. It’s going to be three or four.
“I personally haven’t talked to them yet,” he said. “I know some people around me have talked to them. So, they’re in there. I’ll say that. But I’m not really focused on that route right now.”
Later, Momcilovic described why Kentucky would be a good fit.
“I think Kentucky would be a good fit,” Momcilovic told the Herald-Leader. “I obviously went against Pope at BYU his first year (in the Big 12), and I loved how his team played. I think we went 1-1 against them, but they killed us at their place, because they fly the ball up the court and shoot 3s. I really like the way they play.
“And obviously Kentucky last year, he didn’t have enough shooters around him to really coach, I feel like, the way he wanted. But I think — if I were to choose Kentucky — that would be a good fit for me. I feel like I’d be a great player for him, and he’d be a good coach for me.”
It remains to be seen if Pope is able to maximize his talents at Kentucky.
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