Even more than halfway April there’s still plenty of activity in the college basketball world. The transfer portal has spent several weeks open, but we’re still getting some very intriguing additions into the pool of players hunting for new schools. One of today’s major adds was Andrej Stojakovic and he’ll certainly attract plenty of attention from major players.
A 6-7 guard originally from Carmichael, California, Stojakovic was actually considered a Top 25 national recruit from the high school Class of 2023. He stayed relatively close to home, landing with Stanford and Jerod Haase. He played decent minutes and started nearly a dozen games as a true freshman, putting up 7.8 points and 3.4 rebounds per night, but the Cardinal really struggled. Haase was fired after the season and Stojakovic found himself in the transfer portal for the first time.
He didn’t have to look far for his next landing spot, arriving at rival California later that offseason. The Golden Bears (as well as Stanford) both transitioned to the ACC this season. It was also an important year for Stojakovic himself, as many projected him to make a significant step forward as a sophomore, and they were right about that.
Stojakovic was a full-time starter for Cal, averaging 17.9 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. He missed a few games in late January with a hip issue, but clearly made a measured step forward and became the top scorer and focal point for the Golden Bears. He had multiple noteworthy performances early in the year and put on his best show at the ACC Tournament, scoring 29 in a double overtime win over Virginia Tech before a career-best 37 points against Stanford to finish his season.
The talented wing from California anchored a Golden Bears team that finished below .500 and struggled to a 6-14 mark in a weak ACC. Now he enters the transfer portal again and is likely to find a home at a much more prominent program. Stojakovic showed his physicality and potential on both sides of the ball, becoming one of the top scorers in the ACC. Now it’s all about if he can do that for a prominent school in the Big Ten or SEC or elsewhere.
There still remain hundreds of name floating out there in the portal, but Stojakovic has the kind of talent where he floats towards the top of the list. Initial rumors and rumblings have programs like Illinois connected to him, though it’ll likely depend both on opportunity and the NIL deals available for him.
On the other side, the Golden Bears lose out on their best player but have already been active in the portal this offseason. Justin Pippen, Milos Ilic, and John Camden are a couple of the half-dozen names already landed by Mark Madsen and his staff, but will it be enough for this team to actually compete in the ACC this season?