Four-Star Forward Milan Momcilovic Puts UCLA Men's Basketball in Top 6
Still awaiting their first commit of the cycle, the Bruins have made the cut for one of the top prospects in the Midwest.
Class of 2023 forward Milan Momcilovic narrowed his list of schools down to six on Friday, he announced on Twitter. Momcilovic had UCLA men's basketball on the list of semifinalists alongside Iowa State, Michigan State, Virginia, Minnesota and Louisville.
Momcilovic also had offers from Creighton, Marquette, Miami (FL), Michigan State, Northwestern, Ole Miss, Texas and Xavier.
The Bruins offered Momcilovic on April 28, and he came to Westwood for an official visit on June 15. The Pewaukee (WI) product's visit overlapped with another four-star class of 2023 forward, Andrej Stojakovic, giving UCLA plenty of momentum with two of their top targets this month.
Momcilovic and Stojakovic are both of Serbian decent, and coach Mick Cronin just hired Serbia native Ivo Simovic as a new assistant coach on June 10.
Getting a commitment from one or both of them could help kickstart Cronin's 2023 recruiting class, which will need to be a big one given the fact that there could be as many as eight scholarship spots opening up next offseason.
UCLA's biggest competition for Momcilovic appears to be Virginia. the 2019 NCAA champions and one of the other top public schools in the country. Momcilovic visited Charlottesville the week before he visited Westwood.
Momcilovic is the consensus top-ranked recruit in Wisconsin, leading Pewaukee to back-to-back state championships and winning two Woodland Conference Player of the Year honors in the process. The last commit the Bruins got out of Wisconsin was Kevon Looney, who just won his third NBA Championship with the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night.
Where Momcilovic really started to emerge as a national target, though, was when the Nike EYBL circuit opened in April. Momcilovic had just three offers prior to the first evaluation period, but then he picked up nine over the next six weeks while starring for Team Herro.
ESPN, 247Sports, Rivals and On3 all have Momcilovic pegged as a four-star prospect. In the 247Sports Composite, the 6-foot-8 rising senior is ranked as the No. 8 power forward in the nation and No. 33 overall player in his class.
Momcilovic's build and all-around skills have helped him draw comparisons to Jaime Jaquez Jr. with a superior 3-point shot. Jaquez has been the Bruins' starting wing forward ever since Cronin arrived, and the coach will surely be in the market for his centerpiece's replacement moving forward.
Whether or not Momcilovic is able to be that in Westwood remains to be seen, but the answer should become clear in the upcoming weeks or months.
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