DePaul adds Serbian shooting specialist to its 2025-26 guard room
Chris Holtmann and Co. have made their final backcourt addition to round out their second offseason with the Blue Demons.
The DePaul Blue Demons received a Serbian surprise late Friday afternoon, as NBA insider Jonathan Givony announced the commitment of 6-foot-3 guard Ilija Milijašević to Chris Holtmann’s second squad in Lincoln Park. In all likelihood, the addition of Milijašević rounds out the Blue Demons’ roster for 2025-26.
In his second season playing for the Adriatic League’s Mega Superbet in 2024-25, Milijašević averaged 4.5 points, 0.9 rebounds and 0.8 assists while shooting 43.4 percent from three-point range and 81.2 percent at the charity stripe over 30 games.
Milijašević was also the second-leading scorer on the Serbian U20 national team in 2024, averaging 12.4 points, 3.7 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 26 minutes over the span of seven games. He will arrive on DePaul’s campus as a 21-year-old who appears ready to make an immediate impact for Holtmann and his staff.
“He has a beautiful jumper. I think he’s probably one of the top five shooters in the Adriatic League, which isn’t easy to do because that’s a pure shooting league,” said Arman Jovic of popular X account PDT Scouting. “I think DePaul is expecting an elite shooter off the bench and I think he also gives you playmaking chops if you need him to.”
While playing with Mega in 2024-25, Milijašević essentially functioned exclusively as an “elite shooter off the bench”, averaging 2.5 three-point attempts per game in only 12.9 minutes per contest.
And while his minutes share from the prior summer playing on the Serbian U20 team were halved once he re-joined Adriatic play, it wasn’t for lack of talent. Instead, it was for an increased level of talent surrounding him.
Milijašević’ teammates this past season included Bogoljub Marković (47th pick to the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2025 NBA Draft), Mihailo Petrović (Illinois commit getting some NBA buzz) and Filip Jović (Auburn commit). And with a looming transition towards playing against “higher level athletes” in America for 2025-26, Jovic expects the Blue Demons to slot him into a nearly-identical role to his time at Mega.
“He kind of was an off-ball guy and relocated exclusively to threes [on Mega]. I think he’s more natural there as a catch-and-shoot shooter than he is off the dribble because he’s not bursty,” Jovic said.
One of Milijašević’ primary calling cards, and one Jovic believes DePaul can still work to unlock even further, is his two-way playmaking ability. His best game while playing for Serbia in the U20 championships came in a 72-67 loss to the Czech Republic, notching 20 points, 5 assists and 5 steals while shooting a perfect 8-8 at the free throw line.
“He was primarily a point guard while on the Serbian [U20] team and he’s a really good facilitator. He had some sequences with the Serbian team where he would throw some behind-the-back passes and lots of [dribble handoff] stuff that I think he really capitalized off of,” Jovic said. “I think the biggest thing that DePaul’s staff can do is work on his ball-handling and work on his twitch. The biggest weakness he has right now is going to be his handle, but I think having another on and off [ball] guard off the bench like Ilija is a pretty good thing to have.”