GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida coach Todd Golden has gone international once again. His latest addition to the 2024-25 roster is Serbian center Viktor Mikic, Gators Online has confirmed.
Mikic, a 6-foot-11 center, averaged 14.3 points, 10.2 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game while playing at Chattanooga (Tenn.) Hamilton Heights High School last season.
Mikic moved to the United States after playing in Serbia’s Junior League, where he averaged 17.1 points, 10.3 rebounds, 0.9 blocks and 25.9 minutes per game in 2022-23.
Mikic becomes the fifth member of Florida’s 2024 recruiting class, joining four-star guard Isaiah Brown and transfersAlijah Martin, Sam Alexisand Rueben Chinyelu. The Gators also brought in 7-foot-9 center Olivier Rioux — who will be the tallest college basketball player ever — as a preferred walk-on.
Mikic is the fourth international player for Golden at UF. He signed center Aleks Szymczyk from Germany in his first recruiting class and landed a pair of players in the 2023 class in Lithuanian guard Kajus Kublickas and Australian forward Alex Condon, who earned SEC All-Freshman Team honors.
Golden is confident about the impact his 2024 class will have.
“I think we’ve gotten better, with the three guys we’ve added through the portal,” Golden said. “Rueben and Sam and Alijah, I think they’re all really good guys, first of all, who will continue to elevate the culture of our program. All three are really good players who are at different stages of their careers. Obviously, Alijah is very accomplished. He’s had a great run at FAU and another great year this year, so I expect him to give us a lot of experience and toughness and some leadership as well. Losing ZP, I think he’ll help that way.
“Sam, even though, he had a very good year last year as a double-double guy, had some really great numbers. A really good rim-protector. We feel he’s got room to just keep getting better. He’s only 19. Really young, but strong, big body. It’ll be a great summer for him here and we think he’ll be really impactful next year. And Rueben is a guy, when you look at his counting stats from last year they don’t really jump out, but if you dig into his numbers and see that he was over 60 percent from the field, a great rim protector, incredible size, we feel like he’s going to take a huge jump going into next season. All three of those guys we’re really excited about.
“And, obviously, Isaiah coming in next year also will give us another young guy right now. We feel like he’s going to be in that same kind of bucket as Tommy and Condo; a little lower-ranked. I guess he’s up to 99, right now. Made a little 60-spot jump over a short period of time. Not sure how that works, maybe you guys can explain that to me. But we always thought he was really good and we feel like he can come in and be a part of this team and help. So, yeah, I’m really happy where we are.”
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