UCLA Men's Basketball: Transfer Unpacks Differences Between Bruins And Former Teams
Prior to his new team's three-game exhibition tour in Spain, former Utah Utes shaprshooter Lazar Stefanovic, a 6'7" junior transfer, reflected on the key difference between his prior teams (a tally which also includes Mladost, a top pro team in his native Serbia) and your UCLA Bruins.
David Woods of Bruin Report Online/247Sports was on hand to capture Stefanovic's quote:
"I mean it's really intense. There's not a lot of breaks. There's not a lot of sauntering around and just not doing anything," Stefanovic observed. "Everything has to be done with pace, so that's something that I was kind of used to but I would say it's put on a next level over here with coach [Mick] Cronin."
While at Utah, Stefanovic was named to the 2021-22 Pac-12 All-Freshman Team. Across his two seasons with the program, he averaged 8.9 points on .366/.338/.851 shooting splits, 2.9 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 0.7 steals a night.
Last year, Stefanovic enjoyed a fairly sizable impact for the 17-15 club. He notched averages of 10.2 points on .369/.359/.868 shooting splits, 3.0 boards, 2.7 dimes and 1.1 steals a night. That 35.9% three-point rate arrived on a high-volume 4.8 tries per night, and he will no doubt be called upon to hopefully replicate that level of consistent floor-stretching during his first season in Westwood this year.
