The eldest son of former All-NBA sharpshooter Peja Stojaković has verbally pledged to play for Illinois in the upcoming 2025-26 season after averaging 17.9 points per game at California.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

While at his Coaches vs. Cancer event at Gordyville USA in Gifford, Ill. earlier this month, Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said the most important priority of his transfer portal search was a forward with size and shooting ability.

The eight-year Illinois head coach can now consider that mission accomplished after the verbal pledge of University of California small forward Andrej Stojaković for the upcoming 2025-26 season.

Stojaković, who is the son of 13-year National Basketball Association veteran Peja Stojakovic whose professional career included three All-Star selections with the Sacramento Kings & an NBA title with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011, emerged as one of the most versatile scorers in college basketball during the 204-25 season.

Andrej Stojaković, a 6-foot-7 and 205-pound forward, was one of just only three Division I players in the 2024-25 season to average at least 17.9 points per game, 4.7 rebounds per game, 1.8 assists per game and 1.2 blocks per game joining Duke's Cooper Flagg and Auburn's Johni Broome.

On3.com reported last Thursday Stojaković had entered the transfer portal with a “Do Not Contact” tag, suggesting he and his representation had a deal in place on his third college destination in three years.

Andrej Stojaković was a All-Atlantic Coast Conference honorable mention selection after transferring from Stanford following his freshman season. Stojaković made dramatic improvements from his freshman season with the Cardinal to last year in scoring (7.8 to 17.9 points per game), rebounding (3.4 to 4.7 per game), free-throw percentage (52.8 to 81.8) and blocks (0.1 to 1.2 per game).

Stojaković was one of 10 scholarship transfers to join the Golden Bears roster during the 2024 offseason before Mark Madsen’s second year in charge of the men’s basketball program in Berkeley but quickly emerged as the program’s leading scorer as he started 28 of 29 games while only being inactive for four consecutive games due to various illness and injury between Jan. 22 to Feb. 1.

Stojaković earned a spot on the ACC All-Tournament first team after averaging 33 points per game on 57.1 percent shooting in two tournament contests. He posted a career-high 37 points, which is the most ever in an ACC Tournament second-round contest, on 13 of 22 shooting in a second-round loss to Stanford on March 12 just one day before pouring in 29 points to lead California past Virginia Tech in a first round contest.

Stojaković scored at 20 points in 13 games this past season with 11 of those performances against power conference competition including 21 points in a loss at North Carolina on Jan. 15.

Stojaković will continue the Illini’s trend of finding international talent for its roster as the Serbian-Greek citizen was born in Thessaloniki, Greece as the eldest child of Peja Stojaković and former Greek model, high jumper, and television host Aleka Kamila. Andrej Stojaković, who will turn 21 years old on August 17, was a consensus four-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting class while attending Jesuit High School in Carmichael, California where he was a McDonald’s All-America selection.

Andrej Stojaković joins Kentucky/Arkansas center Zvonimir Ivisic as additions via the transfer portal and will be on the same roster as 19-year-old Montenegrin forward David Mirkovic and 6'3" Serbian point guard Mihailo Petrovic, who just signed on Tuesday. Illinois also has received returning pledges from veteran players Tomislav Ivisic, Kylan Boswell and Ty Rodgers along with reserve forward Jake Davis. Before hosting his annual Coaches vs. Cancer dinner and auction event on Wednesday evening at Gordyville USA in Gifford, Underwood stated to local media his high level of desire for the 6-foot-9 forward Ben Humrichous to return to the Illini’s 2025-26 roster.

Peja Stojaković was inducted into the 2024 FIBA Hall of Fame class in September along with former All-NBA player Reggie Miller. Stojaković, who drafted 14th overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 1996 NBA Draft, is regarded as one of the best shooters in NBA history as he made 1,760 three-point field goals in his career, which ranked 4th all-time at the point of his retirement in 2011. In Dec. 2014, the Kings organization retired his number.