Former D-II All-American Milos Vicentic latest UCSD player to commit to UNM

The Lobos will not be without a Serbian connection this season after all.

After the light-hearted pair of Serbian forwards Filip Borovicainin and Jovan Milicevic transferred in the past week to Xavier University, new Lobos coach Eric Olen on Friday landed a commitment from Milos Vicentic, a former Division II All-American who played for Olen this past season at UC San Diego.

Vicentic, a 6-foot-7 face-up forward, becomes the fourth new Lobo to commit to play for Olen at UNM and second in the past two days who have previously been named collegiate All-Americans. That includes Antonio Chol, who was named a junior college All-American earlier this week.

In 2024, Vicentic averaged 21.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and shooting 41.4% from 3-point range on nearly five attempts per game for Division II McKendree University in Illinois, where he scored more than 1,200 points in 75 games played.

Last season, he transferred to UCSD for what he thought would be his final season of college basketball. Instead, after 20 minutes of play in the Nov. 6 season opener against San Diego State in Viejas Arena, he injured his foot and missed the rest of the season, earning a medical hardship waiver for this final season of play at UNM.

JOKER CONNECTION: Vicentic’s father is Branislav Vicentic, a coach for Mega Vizura, a professional basketball club in Belgrade.

There, Branislav Vicentic coached NBA superstar Nikola Jokic as a teenager in 2012 and 2013, credited as one of the first to truly identify Jokic’s undeniable natural skills and set him on the path toward developing into an NBA Draft pick in 2014.

“Listen, I don’t want to take credit,” Branislav Vicentic said in a 2023 deep dive on Jokic by Baxter Holmes published on ESPN.com. “Some [people] ask me, ‘Hey, you create Nikola Jokic?’ I don’t know how to make Nikola Jokic. I was blessed to have him on my team. ...

“He’s Beethoven. You give him a piano. He makes music.”

UC San Diego played in Denver’s Ball Arena, home of the Denver Nuggets, last month for its NCAA Tournament game. Though not playing, Milos Vicentic was there and in an interview about Jokic noted that he remembers watching Jokic when he (Milos) was a kid.

“It was pretty fun to watch as a kid, Nikola, how he becomes the biggest player in the world,” Milos Vicentic told the Denver Gazette last month. “I enjoy it a lot that my father had the opportunity to coach him. I also learned a lot watching them.”

Lobos current roster...

While forwards Ibrahima Sacko and Deraje Agbaosi, a walk-on, have not entered the NCAA transfer portal, neither have yet made clear whether they intend to try and play for Olen’s Lobos this coming season.

For now, the four new players who have committed to play for Olen’s 2025-26 Lobos are (alphabetical):

• Antonio Chol, 6-9 forward, junior college transfer from Garden City Community College in Kansas (two years of eligibility)
• Jake Hall, 6-4 guard, Carlsbad (California) High School (four years of eligibility)
• Chris Howell, 6-6 guard, senior transfer from UC San Diego (one year of eligibility)
• Milos Vicentic, 6-7 forward, graduate transfer from UC San Diego (one year of eligibility)

FROM THE PIT TO THE P.I.T.: Former UNM Lobo center Nelly Junior Joseph, who played last week in the Reese’s College All Star Game, has been invited to play in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, a pre-NBA Draft combine event available to players who have exhausted their college eligibility.

The event, played annually in Portsmouth, Virginia, is held April 16-19 and regularly attended by all NBA teams and international scouts.

Boise State’s Tyson Degenhart and VCU’s Max Schulga, who previously played at Utah State, are two other players with Mountain West ties invited to participate in Portsmouth.