Kentucky just offered an elite five-star forward in the 2025 class

Mark Pope’s first priority when he was hired as Kentucky’s head coach was to build a team for the 2024-25 season, and now that he’s done that, high school recruiting has become a priority.

Coach Pope has been to different camps to look at some of the best players in the 2025 class, and he just came up with an elite forward. Nikola Bundalo is ranked as the 21st player in the 2025 class according to the 247Sports composite rankings, making him a five-star.

The 6’11, 195 pound power forward was born and raised in Ohio, but both of his parents are from Serbia. Bundalo is quickly rising in the recruiting rankings, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him finish among the top 15 players in this class when all is said and done.

Bundalo has offers from Alabama, Creighton, Illinois and Michigan State, so he’s a player all the top players want in the 2025 class. Coach Pope offered Bundalo yesterday, and he is a player that would fit very well into the offensive system run by Coach Pope.

Watching film on Bundalo, it’s clear that he is an elite post player who crashes the boards for rebounds and knocks down dunks. What makes him such an exciting prospect for Coach Pope is his ability to shoot the ball and pass. He plays the game much like Kentucky’s new power forward, Andrew Carr. Bundalo is a name that Big Blue Nation needs to remember as Coach Pope begins to go hard into high school recruiting.