The final member of the 2025-26 Kentucky basketball team is now in Lexington
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Incoming UK basketball player Andrija Jelavic has arrived in Lexington.
- Jelavic was the final member of the 2025-26 Kentucky team yet to arrive on the UK campus.
- Jelavic has previous professional playing experience in Europe.
Mark Pope’s second Kentucky basketball team is finally complete.
On Monday, incoming freshman Andrija Jelavic arrived on the Kentucky campus in Lexington as part of his move-in process ahead of the 2025-26 season.
UK announced Jelavic’s arrival via social media posts Monday night.
“Hello, BBN,” he said in a video from the Joe Craft Center. “I’m Andrija Jelavic. I’m here on campus. I’m excited to get to work, to meet you all. And I’m excited to get a (national championship) number nine.”
A 6-foot-11 big man from Croatia, Jelavic is the final member of Pope’s squad to arrive in the commonwealth. The Wildcats recently wrapped up an eight-week period of summer practices, with Jelavic the only player unable to participate.
Now that he’s on campus, Jelavic is expected to undergo standard medical testing that other UK players have already completed. Fall classes at Kentucky start Aug. 25, with team workouts also set to begin then.
UK’s preseason practice schedule will commence the week of Sept. 22 and Kentucky’s first exhibition contest against potential preseason No. 1 Purdue is slated for Oct. 24 at Rupp Arena.
Jelavic, who committed to Kentucky in April, is a 21-year-old power forward. He’s considered one of the top European prospects opting to take the college basketball route. Jelavic spent the last two seasons for Mega MIS, also known as Kosarkaski klub Mega Basket and Mega Superbet, a professional team based in Serbia.
The versatile Jelavic, who has a 7-foot-2 wingspan, averaged 10.7 points and 7.4 rebounds in 27.5 minutes across 29 contests for Mega MIS in his most recent season with the club. Jelavic shot 48.5% from the field and 30.5% on a significant amount of 3-point attempts. Mega MIS plays in the AdmiralBet ABA League. Jelavic also arrives in Lexington with past playing experience on Croatian youth national teams.
“Andrija is a really skilled, athletic, mobile, veteran player who has been playing at a high level for the last two years,” Pope said in a UK news release that announced the addition of Jelavic. “… Andrija has a really unique combination of size, athleticism and skill that will translate seamlessly into our system.”
Jelavic is in line to become the second player from Croatia to suit up for the Wildcats in a game, following Zvonimir Ivisic, who spent an eventful 2023-24 season at UK before spending last season at Arkansas with former Kentucky coach John Calipari. Ivisic, whose time at Kentucky was plagued by a delayed arrival and a lengthy NCAA investigation into his amateur status that stretched into the season, will play with his twin brother, Tomislav, at Illinois this season.
The issues that marred Ivisic’s time in Lexington aren’t expected to crop up for Jelavic, who is one of four first-year college basketball players on the 2025-26 Kentucky squad. He joins traditional high school recruits Braydon Hawthorne, Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno.
During his first press conference of the offseason in May, Pope made it a point to explain what the opportunity to play at Kentucky means to Jelavic.
“On FaceTime with him as we were exchanging calls, the more and more this became real, the more emotional he got,” Pope said. “Like all of us, the opportunity to be associated with Kentucky basketball is a little bit beyond his wildest dreams. And so he was pretty emotional about the whole process.”
Jelavic’s arrival coincides with Kentucky’s continued preparation for the 2025-26 season. On Thursday, UK will hold a private team event to begin the preseason, which will be followed by a two-day team retreat.
