Nemanja Jovanovic - Men's Basketball Coach

Nemanja Jovanovic

Title:
Assistant Coach, Director of International Recruiting
Alma Mater:
University of Belgrade, ’09

Nemanja Jovanovic enters his fourth season as an assistant coach at UCLA in 2026-27. Jovanovic, who joined the Bruins’ program in the summer of 2023, also serves as the team’s Director of International Recruiting.

Jovanovic, who primarily goes by Yogi, assists UCLA’s program in multiple areas, including international recruiting, scouting and player development. Prior to his arrival in Westwood, he spent the previous nine seasons working at three universities in the United States – SMU (2015-22), DePaul (2022-23) and UT Arlington (2023-24). In addition to time working in college basketball, Jovanovic has extensive international basketball experience.

The Bruins’ 2026-27 campaign will mark his 13th season working in college basketball.

In three seasons at UCLA, Jovanovic has helped guide the Bruins to an overall record of 63-40. Most recently, UCLA went 24-12 and finished in a tie for sixth place in the 18-team Big Ten standings in 2025-26. The Bruins advanced to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 7 seed in the past two seasons (2024-25, 2025-26). In addition, UCLA has posted a 13-7 record in Big Ten play in both seasons. Bruins’ forward Tyler Bilodeau earned third-team All-Big Ten acclaim in 2024-25 and 2025-26.

In 2025-26, UCLA ranked No. 7 in the nation in fewest turnovers committed per game (8.9) and No. 8 in assist-turnover ratio (1.8). In 2024-25, the Bruins won 12 of their final 17 games and ranked No. 7 in the nation in turnover margin (+4.6) and No. 16 in turnovers forced per game (15.1). UCLA’s 2024-25 squad led all Big Ten programs in steals per game (8.1).

During Jovanovic’s first two seasons on UCLA’s coaching staff (2023-24, 2024-25), the Bruins led their conference in scoring defense – in the Pac-12 in 2023-24 and in the Big Ten in 2024-25. UCLA limited the opposition to an averaged of 65.2 points per game in 34 contests in 2024-25.

In 2023-24, Adem Bona was honored as the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, in addition to securing first-team all-conference honors. Bona was a second-round pick in the 2024 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers.

Prior to his arrival at UCLA, Jovanovic had worked alongside head coach K.T. Turner at the University of Texas Arlington as the men’s basketball program’s Assistant to the Head Coach in 2023-24. Jovanovic served as Special Assistant to the Head Coach at DePaul during the 2022-23 basketball season.

Jovanovic spent seven years on the men’s basketball staff at SMU in Dallas. He served as the Mustangs’ Director of Player Development (2018-22) over his final four seasons after one year as the Director of Video Services (2015-16) and two seasons as the program’s Special Assistant to the Head Coach. He stepped into a head coaching role for two weeks during the 2021-22 season when the rest of the coaching staff was unable to travel due to COVID-19 quarantine protocols.

During Jovanovic’s tenure at SMU, the Mustangs won the American Athletic Conference regular-season title in 2017 and the AAC Tournament in 2017. SMU’s team advanced to the 2017 NCAA Tournament before back-to-back NIT appearances in 2021 and 2022. The Mustangs’ program had three AAC Player of the Year selections and two players who won the conference’s Sixth Man of the Year award. SMU had been ranked or receiving votes by the Associated Press in six of his seven seasons on the coaching staff. The Mustangs climbed to as high as No. 8 in the AP poll in January 2016.

While coaching at SMU and DePaul, he worked with four student-athletes who advanced to the NBA – Sterling Brown (2017 draft), Shake Milton (2018 draft) and Semi Ojeleye (2017 draft) at SMU, and Javan Johnson (2023 undrafted free agent signee) at DePaul.

Jovanovic began his coaching career in 2002 as the player development coach for BC Zeleznicar Lajkovac in his native country of Serbia. He worked as an assistant coach for one of the top European teams in Red Star Belgrade. Formally known as Crvena zvezda, Red Star is a professional club in Serbia that has been a founding member and shareholder of the Adriatic Basketball Association.

Jovanovic joined SMU after stints as the head coach for the Nassjo Basket basketball team in Sweden (2015) and the Danish Horsholm 79ers (2012-14). During his two seasons in Denmark, he worked with the country’s national team program as the coach for individual player development. Through 12 seasons coaching basketball in Europe, he served in coaching positions in Serbia, Spain, Denmark and Sweden.

While in Serbia, he coached a pair of NBA Draft selections in Nemanja Bjelica and Nemanja Nedovic. Bjelica was the No. 35 overall selection in the 2010 NBA Draft (Washington Wizards). Nedovic was taken as the No. 30 overall selection in the 2013 NBA Draft (Phoenix Suns). Bjelica became the fourth NBA player from Serbia to win an NBA title, accomplishing that feat in 2022 with the Golden State Warriors.

Additionally, Jovanovic has coached in the NBA Summer League. In 2016, he served as a member of the Utah Jazz’s summer coaching staff. In 2022, he was part of the San Antonio Spurs’ summer coaching staff.

Jovanovic holds a FIBA coaching license and has basketball coaching certifications from the Basketball Academy Belgrade (Serbia) and the Basketball Academy Madrid (Spain). In 2009, he completed a bachelor’s degree in sport/basketball from the University of Belgrade.

Jovanovic and his wife, Nada, have two sons, Stefan and Aleksandar.