In Milan Momcilovic, Mark Pope got more than the No. 1 transfer. He may have saved his job

In the second round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament, Milan Momcilovic finished off Mark Pope’s second season as Kentucky’s men’s basketball coach, scoring 20 points in Iowa State’s 82-63 rout of a once-ballyhooed Wildcats team.

Two months later, he may have just saved Pope’s job.

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One of the final moves of the 2026 transfer portal cycle was arguably the most seismic, with Momcilovic, the No. 1 player in USA TODAY Sports’ portal rankings, committing to Kentucky five days after he pulled out of the 2026 NBA Draft.

REQUIRED READING: Kentucky’s Mark Pope can look to Joe B. Hall entering pivotal season

On its own, Momcilovic’s decision is enormous.

Last season, on his way to earning second-team All-Big 12 honors for a 29-win Iowa State team that made the Sweet 16, the 6-foot-8 forward was perhaps the best shooter in the country. He led the country in made 3-pointers (136) and averaged 7.5 attempts from beyond the arc per game. Despite that high volume, he was still incredibly efficient, making 48.7% of his 3s. As Kyle Tucker of 247Sports pointed out, Momcilovic is the only Division I player since the 3-point line was introduced in 1986 to make at least 130 3s in a season while shooting at a 48% clip or better.

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Given what Pope had endured in the preceding weeks and months, the addition of Momcilovic meant that much more.

After a laudable debut season in 2024-25, Pope’s second Kentucky team fell drastically short of immense expectations. An ill-conceived roster reportedly worth more than $20 million finished ninth in the SEC, lost 14 games, needed a miracle, last-second heave to avoid a first-round NCAA tournament loss to Santa Clara and was punked in the second round by an Iowa State team down its best player, with one Cyclones player saying after the game that they knew the Wildcats would quit if they got down by enough at any point.

An offseason that initially carried the promise of a fresh start quickly turned into a recurring nightmare.

Kentucky brought several of the biggest names available in the portal to campus and was well-positioned to land them only to ultimately be rebuffed….

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/milan-momcilovic-mark-pope-got-210833886.html

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Publish date : 2026-06-04 21:08:00

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