The UCLA men’s basketball program has elevated Nate Georgeton to the role of assistant coach, while adding Nemanja Jovanovic and Brendyn Taylor as assistant coaches.
The NCAA Division I Council voted in January 2023 to approve an increase of two basketball coaches who can participate in skill instruction, but may not recruit off campus. These changes became effective in men’s and women’s basketball on July 1, 2023.
Georgeton, who has spent the past four seasons at UCLA as the video coordinator and the program’s director of student-athlete development, has been elevated to the role of assistant coach. He replaces Ivo Simovic, who accepted an assistant coach position with the NBA’s Toronto Raptors this summer after spending the 2022-23 season at UCLA. Jovanovic and Taylor, both with college basketball backgrounds, are being added to the Bruins’ staff for the 2023-24 season. Jovanovic, who primarily goes by Yogi, will serve as both assistant coach and Director of International Recruiting.
“Nate is a 24/7 worker who has great communication skills and loves to coach and recruit,” said Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach. “We need his youth, passion and drive on the recruiting front. He has earned this promotion and I believe in him. I am very excited to add Yogi to head up our international recruiting and help mentor our current roster of diverse backgrounds. He comes highly recommended by people who I trust and respect, including Ivo Simovic. Yogi worked with Larry Brown while on staff at SMU and we have crossed paths many times. He’s a perfect fit for our staff and style. Brendyn is an up-and-coming young coach from Los Angeles who grew up in a basketball family and loves to mentor young players. We are all about player development, on and off the court, and Brendyn will have a major impact as both a coach and role model for our young players in the program. We are excited to bring him back home to L.A.”
Georgeton has played a major role over the past four years in an array of video-related and scouting responsibilities on UCLA’s staff. He was hired as the Bruins’ video coordinator in the summer of 2019 and has expanded his role on the coaching staff to include managing recruiting databases and schedules, breakdowns of practice and game film and scouting edits. Over the past four seasons, UCLA has compiled a 99-36 overall record and a 58-19 mark in Pac-12 Conference play. In addition to a Final Four appearance in 2021 and back-to-back Sweet 16 trips in 2022 and 2023, UCLA’s program has produced four NBA Draft selections in the past two seasons.
Jovanovic brings a collegiate and international coaching pedigree to Westwood. His primarily responsibilities at UCLA will include overseeing the Bruins’ international recruiting efforts and assisting with player development. Hailing from Serbia, his college basketball experience has included stops at UT Arlington, DePaul and SMU. He most recently served as the Assistant to the Head Coach at the University of Texas Arlington in 2023-24. Jovanovic spent the 2022-23 season in a similar capacity at DePaul, and he served in a player development and special assistant role at SMU for seven seasons (2015-16 through 2021-22).
Taylor spent the past two seasons as a graduate assistant on the staff at St. John’s in New York. In his role on UCLA’s coaching staff, he will assist with player development and scouting and oversee a mentoring program for the Bruins’ freshmen. Taylor earned his undergraduate degree in three years from USC (2013-15), playing on the men’s basketball team before moving on to Santa Clara in 2015 as a graduate transfer. He concluded his college career at Bushnell College in Eugene, Ore., during the 2016-17 season. Taylor played professionally in Germany and later served as an assistant coach at Providence High School in Burbank, Calif.
https://uclabruins.com/news/2023/8/1/ucla-mens-basketball-announces-three-assistant-coaches.aspx
