May 13, 2026
Milan Momcilovic vs. Kentucky, March 22 — 20 points, 6-of-12 FG, 4-of-9 from three, 4-of-5 FT, 5 rebounds, 2 steals in 36 minutes.
NCAA Tournament Second Round — Iowa State 82, Kentucky 63
Three-point percentages in college basketball are noisy — a 35-percent shooter is good, 40 is elite, almost nobody finishes a full Division I season above 45 on real volume. Momcilovic shot 48.7. He made 136 threes, most in the country. He shot 50.6 from the field overall, on a team where he was the headliner defenses planned for. At the NBA Combine in Chicago this week he placed fifth in spot-up shooting, fifth in off-the-dribble shooting, and tied for first in free throws by making all ten of his attempts. This isn't a fit question. It's a how-do-we-get-him question.
Pope's 2026-27 portal class so far: Justin McBride, a James Madison wing who shot 40 percent from three; Washington guard Zoom Diallo; Furman guard Alex Wilkins; Senegalese pro Ousmane N'Diaye; and Winchester native Jerone Morton. Returning vets Trent Noah and Reece Potter round out the holdovers. In his recent fan Q&A, Pope noted that both Diallo and Wilkins posted assist rates above 30 percent last season — and that only one other roster in the country has two such players. That's the offense Momcilovic would walk into: two pass-first guards hunting the open shooter, with the nation's most accurate gunner on the wing.
Two things still need to break Kentucky's way. First, Momcilovic has to actually withdraw from the draft by May 27 — and at the Combine this week he told reporters 'I'm focused on the draft. I haven't even talked to any colleges yet.' ESPN's Jeff Borzello has publicly said he expects Momcilovic to stay in. Second, even if he comes back to college, two other coaches are pitching him as hard as Pope is. The point isn't that Kentucky is about to land him. The point is that the same month the talk shows declared Pope's roster bottom-five in the SEC, the best shooter in America still had Kentucky in his final three.