{"id":3128,"date":"2025-04-28T19:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T19:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/3128\/"},"modified":"2025-04-28T19:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T19:43:10","slug":"cal-transfer-andrej-stojakovic-son-of-former-nba-all-star-peja-commits-to-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/3128\/","title":{"rendered":"Cal transfer Andrej Stojakovi\u0107, son of former NBA all-star Peja, commits to Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the biggest names in the transfer portal is headed to Illinois<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cal guard Andrej Stojakovi\u0107, one of the top scorers in the ACC last season and the son of former NBA all-star Peja Stojakovi\u0107, has committed to the Fighting Illini, he announced Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stojakovi\u0107 chose Illinois over North Carolina and Stanford, his other two finalists.<\/p>\n

As a sophomore last season, the 6-foot-7 Stojakovi\u0107 averaged 17.9 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game for a Cal team that finished 14-19. He had a sizable role in the Golden Bears\u2019 offense, averaging 13.9 shots per game, though he shot just 42.7% overall and 31.8% from 3-point range. He ended the year on a tear, averaging 29 points per game and shooting 47.1% from beyond the arc in Cal\u2019s final three games.<\/p>\n

REQUIRED READING: Auburn basketball transfer Chad Baker-Mazara commits to USC<\/a><\/p>\n

Stojakovi\u0107, a McDonald\u2019s All-American who began his career at Stanford, is rated as the No. 35 player in the transfer portal, according to 247Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The commitment from Stojakovi\u0107 continues what has been a busy offseason for coach Brad Underwood\u2019s program.<\/p>\n

Though it lost guard Tre White and Morez Johnson Jr. to the portal, Illinois has landed commitments from a pair of Serbian prospects, both of whom were playing professionally overseas \u2014 forward David Mirkovic and guard Mihailo Petrovic. Though Stojakovi\u0107 was born in California while his father was playing for the Sacramento Kings<\/a>, he\u2019s of Serbian descent.<\/p>\n

The Illini also added Croatian big man Zvonimir Ivisic from the portal from Arkansas, reuniting him with his brother Tomislav, the team\u2019s second-leading scorer last season.<\/p>\n

It will make Illinois perhaps the most internationally influenced roster in major college basketball next season, a fact that isn\u2019t lost on Underwood. After Stojakovi\u0107\u2019s commitment, the ninth-year Illinois coach posted a computer-generated picture<\/a> on social media of himself in an orange tracksuit and a cap crouching down in front of a Soviet-era khrushchevka apartment building.<\/p>\n

With the addition of Stojakovi\u0107, the Illini could very well have a roster that will earn them a preseason top-25 ranking come fall.<\/p>\n

“I think the main reasons were pretty clear to my inner circle as a basketball fit,” Stojakovi\u0107 said to ESPN<\/a>. “Coach Underwood has been very aggressive recruiting me from the start and constantly reiterating how much I’m wanted and needed as a basketball player there. They really believe I’m the missing piece to what they think is a national championship team.”<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cal basketball transfer Andrej Stojakovi\u0107 commits to Illinois<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the biggest names in the transfer portal is headed to Illinois. Cal guard Andrej Stojakovi\u0107, one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2047,7,2050,2049,2052,2048,2053,6,2046,477,2051],"class_list":{"0":"post-3128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-andrej-stojakovic","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-brad-underwood","11":"tag-cal","12":"tag-fighting-illini","13":"tag-illinois","14":"tag-morez-johnson-jr","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-peja-stojakovic","17":"tag-sacramento-kings","18":"tag-transfer-portal"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114417303790665561","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}