One of the most dramatic offseason storylines has finally come to an end. Yup, the rumors have been flying around Milan Momcilovic, but he finally shut things down and committed to Kentucky over Louisville, St. John's and Arizona. Michael Malone and North Carolina were never involved here, though plenty of fans were hoping the Tar Heels would make a move.
Neoklis Avdalas had the reaction you'd expect with Alexandros Samodurov committing
We now know why UNC didn't bother trying to go all-in to land the 5-star Iowa State transfer. Right after the sharpshooter pledged to Kentucky, reporter Adam Zagoria dropped the bombshell that Kentucky will be paying Momcilovic more than $6 million just for next season. This was a desperate move by Mark Pope, but he felt like he had to break the bank to get this done, and potentially save his job.
Milan Momcilovic's NIL deal with Kentucky was north of $6M, per sources https://t.co/bGmWSOoFce
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) June 2, 2026
Milan Momcilovic's $6 million NIL deal was always too rich for North Carolina
Keep in mind here too that it wasn't long ago that Malone was making a serious push for Mouhamed 'Momo' Faye, but it was reported that other schools were offering about double what Malone and UNC were ready to put on the table. Momcilovic is one of the best shooters in the country and we had a feeling this was always going to come down to whoever put the most dough in front of him.
If there is some good news here, it's that Momcilovic won't be in the ACC after all, as two upcoming matchups with Louisville next season would have been made much more difficult had he given Pat Kelsey the news that he was hoping for. That wasn't the case, with Pope, fighting for his job, being the one to celebrate.
Hey, we can't blame Pope for offering Milan a bag like this. After the rough showing in the NCAA Tournament, plenty of people were calling for Pope to be fired. The Wildcats were an Otega Oweh prayer away from losing to Santa Clara in the first round. Pope had to do everything possible to land Momcilovic and he came out on top.
As for Malone and his staff, they won't lose any sleep at night over this, as Greek big man Alexandros Samodurov has given the staff his verbal pledge. Samodurov has the fanbase hyped for next season, as he'll join a starting five that also includes Terrence Brown, Matt Able, Jarin Stevenson and Neoklis Avdalas.
With Samodurov on board, the Tar Heels should start to get Top 25 respect they deserve. Sure, if the money was right, we would have welcomed Momcilovic to Chapel Hill with open arms. But an insane amount of money was what it took for him to pull out of the NBA Draft and for Kentucky to get things over the line. Nothing for UNC fans to worry about.
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