Northwestern continues to rebuild its roster following an underwhelming season, signing former BYU guard Aleksej Kostić on Friday, he announced on Instagram.
Kostić comes to Evanston with three years of eligibility after spending one year with the Cougars, where he averaged 4.4 points in 12 minutes of action per game. His 36.7% shooting percentage ranked fourth at BYU.
The Pfaffstätten, Austria, native previously played for the Arkadia Traiskirchen Lions of the Austrian Superliga. Kostić averaged 6.5 points per game and scored double figures in 20 games for the Lions.
At BYU, his role drastically changed over the course of the season. In the early part of the season, Kostić saw limited minutes, playing more than 10 minutes only three times through January. As the season progressed, his playing time increased, seeing double-digit minutes in 10 of the Cougars’ last 11 games.
Kostić’s offensive output also improved later in the year, as he scored more than 10 points in four of the team’s eight final games. He had scored double digits just once before that stretch.
When Kostić’s teammate, guard Richie Saunders, tore his ACL against Colorado, the Cougars began to rely on Kostić more as they looked to make a deep run in March Madness. Kostić delivered a mixed bag of results, shooting above 40% from deep five times, but going a combined 3-for-20 from beyond the arc in the other post-Saunders games.
As Kostić leaves Provo, Utah, for Evanston, he joins a Wildcat team in transition. Including graduate transfers, NU has lost 11 players in the transfer portal. Freshman forwards Tre Singleton and Tyler Kropp have both committed to other programs, with Singleton heading to Iowa State and Kropp going to Washington State.
Junior center Arrinten Page is going to Providence, while junior guard Jordan Clayton entered the portal as a graduate transfer and is headed home to UMass. His fellow graduate transfer guard, Blake Smith, is spending his last season of college basketball at Oral Roberts. After seeing limited playing time for most of the season, sophomore guard K.J. Windham is headed to James Madison.
Sophomore guard Max Green, junior guard Jayden Reid, freshman center Cade Bennerman and graduate transfers Justin Mullins and Gus Hurlburt have not announced their intentions for next season.
To replace the departures, coach Chris Collins has added six players in the portal: Forwards Okku Federiko, Jack Karasinski, Luke McEldon and Collin Smith; and guards Kostic and LA Pratt.
The six will join the roster with freshman guards Jake West and Phoenix Gill and sophomore guard Angelo Ciaravino, the only three players returning from last season, as well as recruits forward Jayden Hodge and center Symon Ghai.
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