{"id":15287,"date":"2025-07-17T02:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T02:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/15287\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T02:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T02:32:08","slug":"rising-star-andrej-kostic-says-farewell-to-europe-wildcats-get-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/15287\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising star Andrej Kostic says farewell to Europe \u2014 Wildcats, get ready"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5u\">Andrej Kostic said<a href=\"https:\/\/www.heartlandcollegesports.com\/2025\/07\/16\/andrej-kostic-leaves-serbian-club-kansas-state-commitment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> goodbye<\/a> to Crvena Zvezda on Wednesday, closing the door on his Serbian club career and opening another with Kansas State.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5x\">The 6-foot-5 wing officially joins the Wildcats for the 2024\u201325 season. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"60\">One of the top international prospects in his class, Kostic averaged 16.0 points, 2.7 assists, and 2.6 rebounds across 39 games last season, shooting 36% from beyond the arc and 77% from the line.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">AK47 makes it official \ud83d\udd8b\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/boPFqLeaRq\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/boPFqLeaRq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 785 Sports (@785SportsKSU) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/785SportsKSU\/status\/1945532480221508088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">July 16, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"66\">Crvena Zvezda also confirmed the move, issuing a public statement: \u201cKK Crvena zvezda Meridianbet informs the public that our first-team player Andrej Kostic is moving to the United States, where he will spend the next period studying and playing college basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"69\">Kostic brings a polished offensive game and a wealth of high-level experience. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6c\">He starred for Serbia\u2019s U18 national team, helping secure gold at the 2023 FIBA European Championship and silver in 2024, scoring 23 points in the title game.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6f\">Most recently, at the FIBA U19 World Cup, Kostic turned the tide after a rough start to the event, coming through in clutch moments for Serbia.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">In his last three games, he scored 24 points with 4 rebounds and 1 assist against the Dominican Republic, 25 points with 5 rebounds and 1 assist versus Argentina, and 22 points with 2 rebounds and 2 assists in the matchup against France.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Kansas St commit Andrej Kostic in his last 3 games for Serbia in the FIBA U19 World Cup<\/p>\n<p>24 PTS | 4 REB | 1 AST vs DR<br \/>25 PTS | 5 REB | 1 AST vs Argentina<br \/>22 PTS | 2 REB | 2 AST vs France<\/p>\n<p>After a rough start to the event, Kostic turned the table, coming in clutch for Serbia <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ICTDcjM6Ew\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/ICTDcjM6Ew<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 nbadraftpoint (@nbadraftpoint) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nbadraftpoint\/status\/1941914206938202504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">July 6, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">That r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and recent form have earned him early attention on 2026 NBA Draft watch lists.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">Kansas State, coming off a 16\u201317 season (9\u201311 Big 12), is looking to bounce back after missing the NCAA Tournament in consecutive years. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6u\">Head coach Jerome Tang returns just three scholarship players: point guard David Castillo and forwards Mobi Ikegwuruka and Taj Manning.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6x\">Kostic headlines a deep newcomer class that includes MAC Player of the Year Nate Johnson (Akron), Bowling Green\u2019s Marcus Johnson (16.2 PPG), and Memphis transfer PJ Haggerty, a second-team All-American.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"70\">Also joining the roster are Khamari McGriff (UNC Wilmington), Abdi Bashir (Omaha), fellow international signee Elias Rapieque, and 6-foot-11 JUCO big Stephen Osei, who is expected to redshirt.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"73\">Kostic is expected to earn immediate minutes in the Big 12. If he adjusts quickly to the speed and physicality of the college game, he could become one of the league\u2019s most impactful freshmen\u2014and a rising name for NBA scouts to watch.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrej Kostic said goodbye to Crvena Zvezda on Wednesday, closing the door on his Serbian club career and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,398,400,401,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-15287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}