A source told pcbb1917.com that Providence head coach Ed Cooley has hired Nikola Knezevic — pronounced NEE-koh-lah kuh-NEH-zhuh-vich — to fill the open Associate Director of Player Development position vacated when Cooley promoted Ivan Thomas to assistant coach in April. The source indicated that the hiring was slowed because Providence had to work out visa issues for the native of Belgrade, Serbia. Knezevic played 4 years at California from 2006-2010 and then was a graduate assistant at Providence from 2013-2015 after a 2 year professional career in Serbia. Knezevic played in 105 games at Cal and the Bears made back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament in his junior and senior seasons. Knezevic was primarily a backup point guard for Cal and specialized on the defensive end of the floor.
Knezevic was a graduate assistant on Providence’s 2014 Big East Tournament Championship team and the 2015 Friar squad that also reached the NCAA Tournament. As a player, Knezevic was part of the 2009-10 Cal team that were the regular season Pac 10 champions and he was a member of the Pac 10 All-Academic team in 2007 and 2008. Knezevic also has experience on the international level playing for the U18 Serbia-Montenegro Junior National Team in the 2004 European Championships.
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