What Auburn basketball is getting in Serbian forward Filip Jović

The Tigers got the big they wanted from an unexpected place: The pro leagues of Eastern Europe. But it makes so much sense for this team.

(Filip Jović/Instagram)

AUBURN — When Bruce Pearl said last month that he wanted to add one more impact player on the inside, it wasn’t quite clear where Auburn would get said big man.

There weren’t any obvious names in the transfer portal at that late point in the cycle, and there didn’t seem to be a clear-cut option among the players testing the NBA Draft waters. After Auburn hosted Louisville center James Scott on a visit and he later picked Ole Miss, it felt like the Tigers were going to have to get creative.

And they did just that, getting a new frontcourt piece from a unique source.

Filip Jović, a 6-foot-9 forward from Serbia, committed to play for Auburn on Wednesday. The news came just a few hours before Auburn point guard Tahaad Pettiford announced he would withdraw from the 2025 NBA Draft and play his sophomore season with the Tigers.

Tahaad Pettiford is back. His Year 2 ceiling at Auburn is sky-high.

The 20-year-old Jović has spent the last four seasons playing professionally. His last two seasons were for KK Mega Basket, the same Serbian club that has produced 15 NBA Draft picks over the last 11 years — including three-time MVP Nikola Jokić.

This is uncharted terrain for Auburn basketball under Pearl. The Tigers have had foreign-born players such as Stretch Akingbola and Yohan Traore in recent years, and the program itself has around a dozen international players among its lettermen.

However, almost all of them played high school basketball in the United States. Jović will be the first player Auburn has signed directly from overseas since Australian forward Jack Purchase, who spent the 2014-15 season on the Plains before transferring to Hawaii for the rest of his college basketball career.

Jović is a different type of addition for the Tigers, though. He’s now played multiple seasons in the ABA League, the top division for several Eastern European countries and — for some reason — a single team from the United Arab Emirates. It’s a different level of basketball than, say, a couple of seasons in JUCO or on a non-Division I team.

This past season, Jović averaged 12.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game for KK Mega Basket. He shot 65.2% from 2, 23.3% from 3 and 68.4% from the free-throw line. However, he shot 40% from deep across four playoff games. Additionally, Jović had 16 points and seven rebounds in a fall showcase game in the United States against a squad from the G League.

Jović projects as a 4 who could play some small-ball 5 in certain lineups. He is shorter than both Mississippi State transfer KeShawn Murphy and JUCO signee Emeka Opurum, but he looks more like a prototypical frontcourt player than UCF transfer Keyshawn Hall or Division II standout Elyjah Freeman.

It’s unknown how Jović will translate to life in the SEC, as it’s not typical for overseas players to make this sort of jump. Defending national champion Florida has had some success with similar European imports, with Urban Klavzar being the most notable example as a sixth man last season.

But there’s no denying that Jović fits what Auburn wants to do with its frontcourt, especially on a team that a) has Euro basketball influence all over its offensive scheme and b) will likely push the pace more often post-Johni Broome.

As we have done for the rest of the new additions for Auburn basketball this offseason, here is our breakdown of Jović’s skill set.

This piece features 50-plus clips from his most recent season at KK Mega Basket — along with some footage from his G League Invitational performance and his time at the 2024 FIBA U20 Eurobasket with the Serbian youth national team. Those clips have been condensed into supercuts highlighting a specific portion of his game.

We’ll start with the attribute that leaps off the film when watching Jović, because it’s not what you typically expect from a European big man import.