Unlikely As Tennessee Vols Basketball Coach Falls In Anger Due To Disrespect From Two Of His players….

Tennessee made another splash in the transfer portal last week, grabbing a commitment from forward Igor Milicic. On Thursday, the former Charlotte 49er signed with the Volunteers to make things official.

The 6-10 sharpshooter chose Tennessee over interest from Baylor and Nebraska. Milicic initially began his college career at Virginia before transferring to Charlotte, where he scored 12.8 points per game last season.

“We are excited Igor has decided to join the Volunteers,” Rick Barnes said in a statement. “He is a talented player who has received excellent coaching throughout his career, both in college and in Europe, including learning from his father, Igor Sr., who is one of the best in the business.”

Although Milicic stands in at 6-10, 225 pounds, he’s not your typical big man. Milicic is a capable offensive player, complete with ball-handling ability and shooting skills. He holds a 35 percent mark from three-point range for his career, and connected on 37.6 percent of his shots from long range last season.

That length and shooting will help Tennessee replace some of the production vacated by Dalton Knecht.

“A versatile competitor, Igor has an impressive, unique and polished skill set that we think will translate well to the SEC,” Barnes continued. “He is a quality 3-point shooter and superb defensive rebounder with big-time upside. Igor possesses invaluable experience on the international level with the Polish National Team and he has improved every year as a collegian. We feel he will fit in well at Tennessee, both on and off the court.”

Despite not being a true “big,” Milicic will also help replace some of the size vacated by the departure of Jonas Aidoo and Tobe Awaka. He’ll bring a different flavor to the table, kind of similar to what Tennessee will get in 6-8 Hofstra transfer Darlinstone Dubar. Rick Barnes is going to have a ton of shooting in his starting five, and it will be interesting to see how all of these pieces fit together.

Tennessee still has three open scholarships available. They need another guard, and they’re hot in pursuit of North Florida transfer Chaz Lanier. That’s the next domino to fall — whether or not he ends up in Knoxville remains to be seen.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – University of Tennessee head men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes announced Thursday the signing of Charlotte transfer forward Igor Miličić Jr.

The 2023-24 Third Team All-AAC selection will join the Volunteers in 2024-25 for his final season of collegiate eligibility.

“We are excited Igor has decided to join the Volunteers. He is a talented player who has received excellent coaching throughout his career, both in college and in Europe, including learning from his father, Igor Sr., who is one of the best in the business,” Barnes said. “A versatile competitor, Igor has an impressive, unique and polished skill set that we think will translate well to the SEC. He is a quality 3-point shooter and superb defensive rebounder with big-time upside. Igor possesses invaluable experience on the international level with the Polish National Team and he has improved every year as a collegian. We feel he will fit in well at Tennessee, both on and off the court.”

A 6-foot-10, 225-pounder, Miličić comes to Rocky Top after two years at Charlotte and one at Virginia. He possesses career averages of 8.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game, across 82 appearances, with 52 of them starts.

Miličić is a career 47.6 percent shooter from the field, including boasting a stellar 35.8 percent mark beyond the arc. He has scored in double figures 31 times, notching 15-plus points on 15 occasions and 20-plus four times. In addition, he has 14 double-digit rebounding performances and 11 double-doubles.

A native of Rovinj, Croatia, Miličić is coming off the best season of his career in 2023-24, as he put up 12.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.1 blocks per game over 31 outings, 30 of which he started. He shot a strong 48.7 percent from the floor, including 37.6 percent on 4.8 3-point attempts per game, as well as 81.8 percent at the free-throw line.

Twenty of Miličic’s double-figure point totals came in 2023-24, including 12 of his 15-point showings and three of his four 20-point displays. He dropped a career-best 26 points on 7-of-11 shooting on March 6, 2024, against Rice, adding 10 rebounds in the win.

All but one of Miličic’s collegiate double-doubles came during his junior campaign with the 49ers, as did all but two of his double-digit rebounding totals. He hit multiple 3-pointers 17 times, with three-plus in nine affairs. His play helped Charlotte finish 19-12, including 13-5 in AAC action, good for third place.

Miličic posted an 18-point, 10-rebound double-double against a Big 12 school, UCF, on Nov. 20, 2023, in St. Augustine, Fla. Just 19 days later, he amassed eight points, six rebounds and four blocks on the road at Duke. He was one of just seven players to block four shots versus the Blue Devils in 2023-24 and one of two to do so in Durham, N.C., alongside Virginia’s Ryan Dunn. Over the last four seasons, 2020-24, Miličic is one of only two non-Power Six players to reach that mark against Duke, joining USC Upstate’s Seny N’diaye over 12 months prior, on Nov. 11, 2022.

The 12 double-doubles for Miličic in 2023-24 put him fourth in the AAC. He placed second in the league and No. 23 nationally in defensive rebounding at 7.0 per contest. Additionally, Miličic finished fourth in the AAC in rebounding, sixth in free-throw percentage, ninth in blocks per game, No. 10 in 3-point percentage, No. 15 in field-goal percentage and No. 15 in minutes average (32.21).

Miličic was one of only Division I players in 2023-24 to average at least 12.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game on 48/37/81 shooting splits, alongside UT-Martin’s Jacob Crews (First Team All-OVC) and Boston College’s Quinten Post (Second Team All-ACC). Only Miličic and Post also blocked at least one shot per game.

Per KenPom, Miličic placed No. 41 nationally in defensive rebounding percentage (25.4) and No. 49 in true shooting percentage (63.7) last season.

In 2022-23, his first year at Charlotte, Miličic averaged 7.7 points and 4.1 rebounds per outing. He appeared in 35 games, starting 22, and aided the 49ers to a 22-14 record, good for their most victories since 2000-01, including a fifth-place finish in the CUSA at 9-11. Miličic scored in double figures 10 times and tallied a 20-point, 11-rebound double-double versus Detroit Mercy on Dec. 10, 2022.

Miličic opened his college career at Virginia in 2021-22 by averaging 2.1 points per game over 16 outings, including recording 11 points against Coppin State on Nov. 19, 2021. The Cavaliers went 21-14 and placed sixth in the ACC at 12-8.

A graduate of ProGenius Ulm in Germany, Miličic played for Orange Academy Ratiopharm, a ProA team in Germany, before matriculating to Charlottesville, Va. A citizen of both Croatia and Poland, Miličic debuted for the Polish National Team in Feb. 2020 during FIBA EuroBasket qualifying competition.

Miličic’s father is Igor Miličic Sr., who played professional basketball for 20 years, from 1993 to 2013, and then went into coaching in 2014. He has served as the head coach of the Polish National Team since Oct. 2021 and as the head coach of GeVi Napoli Basket, a Serie A team that he led to the 2023-24 Italian Cup title, since June 2023. He won three Polish Cups as a player and two as a coach, among numerous other accomplishments.

This is the first time the Volunteers will have a player from Croatia on their roster. Three previous Tennessee letter winners, all of whom played for Barnes, hail from other European nations: Olivier Nkamhoua (Finland; 2019-23), Uroš Plavšić (Serbia; 2019-23) and Yves Pons (France; 2017-21).

Miličic is the third transfer headed to Tennessee in 2024-25, joining guard Darlinstone Dubar from Hofstra and forward Felix Okpara from Ohio State. The Volunteers will also welcome one high school signee, guard Bishop Boswell.

To keep up with the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team on social media, follow @Vol_Hoops on Instagram and X/Twitter, as well as /tennesseebasketball on Facebook.