Vols Sign Igor Milicic Jr., the All-AAC Designee.
KNOXVILLE, Tennessee – Rick Barnes, the head men’s basketball coach at the University of Tennessee, revealed on Thursday that he has signed forward Igor Miličić Jr., a transfer from Charlotte.
In 2024–25, the 2023–24 Third Team All-AAC honoree will play his last collegiate season with the Volunteers.
“We are happy that Igor has chosen to become a Volunteer. Barnes stated, “He is a gifted player who has benefited from outstanding coaching throughout his career, both in college and in Europe. One of the best coaches he has had is his father, Igor Sr. We believe Igor’s strong, distinctive, and well-honed skill set will translate well to the SEC. He is a versatile competitor. He has a lot of potential and is a fantastic defensive rebounder and 3-point shooter. With the Polish National Team, Igor has gained priceless international experience, and as a college student, he has gotten better every year. We think he’ll blend right in at Tennessee, on and off the court.”
Coming to Rocky Top after two years at Charlotte and one at Virginia, Miličić is a 6-foot-10, 225-pound player. In 82 games, 52 of which were starts, he has averaged 5.5 rebounds and 8.5 points per game in his career.
Throughout his career, Miličić has shot 47.6% from the field, including an impressive 35.8% from beyond the arc. 31 times has he scored in double figures; 15 times he has scored 15 points or more, and 4 times he has scored 20 points or more. He has also recorded 11 double-doubles and 14 double-digit rebounding games.
Having played in 31 games, 30 of which he started, Miličić, a native of Rovinj, Croatia, is coming off the finest season of his career with 12.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.1 blocks per game. In addition to making 37.6 percent of his 4.8 3-point tries per game, he shot a solid 48.7 percent from the field and 81.8 percent from the free-throw line.
Twenty of Miličic’s double-digit scoring totals (12 of his 15-point performances and three of his four 20-point performances) came in 2023–24. On March 6, 2024, he defeated Rice with a career-high 26 points on 7 of 11 shooting, along with 10 rebounds.
All but two of Miličic’s double-digit rebounding totals and all but one of his collegiate double-doubles occurred during his junior year with the 49ers. He made 17 three-pointers in a row, including nine three-plus attempts. His performance helped Charlotte place third with a 19-12 record, which included a 13-5 record in AAC play.
In St. Augustine, Florida on November 20, 2023, Miličic recorded a double-double with eighteen points and ten rebounds versus UCF, a Big 12 institution. Nineteen days later, he scored eight points, pulled down six rebounds, and blocked four shots while playing at Duke. He was one of just seven players, along with Virginia’s Ryan Dunn, to block four shots against the Blue Devils in 2023–24. He was also one of only two to do so in Durham, North Carolina. Miličic, who joined USC Upstate’s Seny N’diaye more than a year earlier on November 11, 2022, is one of just two non-Power Six players to attain that milestone versus Duke over the last four seasons, 2020–24.
Miličic finished fourth in the AAC in 2023–24 with 12 double-doubles. At 7.0 defensive rebounds per game, he was No. 23 overall and second in the league. Miličic also placed fourth in the AAC in terms of rebounds, sixth in terms of free-throw %, ninth in terms of blocks per game, tenth in terms of 3-point percentage, fifteenth in terms of field-goal percentage, and fifteenth in terms of minutes average (32.21).
Along with Quinten Post of Boston College (Second Team All-ACC) and Jacob Crews of UT-Martin (First Team All-OVC), Miličic was one of just two Division I players in 2023–24 to average at least 12.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game on 48/37/81 shooting splits. Only Post and Miličic stopped one or more shots every game.
Miličic finished the previous season at No. 49 in true shooting percentage (63.7) and No. 41 nationally in defensive rebounding percentage (25.4), according to KenPom.
During his rookie season in Charlotte in 2022–2023; Miličic averaged 7.7 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. His 35 appearances, 22 of which he started, helped the 49ers to a 22-14 record—their most wins since 2000–01—and a fifth-place finish in the CUSA at 9–11. On December 10, 2022, against Detroit Mercy, Miličic recorded a double-double with 20 points, 11 rebounds, and ten times he scored in double figures.
In his first 16 games as a college player at Virginia in 2021–2022, Miličic averaged 2.1 points per game. On November 19, 2021, he scored 11 points against Coppin State. The Cavaliers finished 21-14 and with a 12-8 record, sixth in the ACC.
After completing his studies at ProGenius Ulm in Germany, Miličic participated in the ProA Orange Academy Ratiopharm squad before moving to Charlottesville, Virginia. Miličic, a dual citizen of Croatia and Poland, made his debut for the Polish National Team in a FIBA EuroBasket qualifying match in February 2020.
Igor Miličic Sr., Miličic’s father, was a professional basketball player for 20 years, from 1993 to 2013, before transitioning into coaching in 2014. He took over as head coach of the Polish national team in October 2021. Since June 2023, he has also been the head coach of GeVi Napoli Basket, a Serie A team he guided to the Italian Cup championship in 2023–2024. Among his many achievements were three Polish Cups as a player and two as a coach.
A player from Croatia will be joining the Volunteers for the first time. Uroš Plavšić (Serbia; 2019–23), Yves Pons (France; 2017–21), and Olivier Nkamhoua (Finland; 2019–23) are the three former Tennessee letter winners who played for Barnes.
Along with big Felix Okpara from Ohio State and guard Darlinstone Dubar from Hofstra, Miličic is the third transfer going to Tennessee in 2024–2025. Bishop Boswell, a guard out of high school, is another new recruit to the Volunteers.
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