Serbian forward Katarina Knezevic to Arizona women’s basketball’s 2024 class

As Arizona women’s basketball loses two of its most accomplished international players in recent history, it’s trying to get more into the fold. At least one is on her way as Serbian small forward Katarina Knezevic announced her commitment to the Wildcats on Wednesday. She will join the 2024 class that will arrive in the fall.

The 6-foot Knezevic played internationally for the Serbian national team in last year’sFIBA U18 Women’s European Championship. She averaged 12.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game in that event and was key to the team’s advancement to the semifinals. In the quarterfinals of the event, Knezevic scored 25 points against Poland, hitting 4 of 5 three-point shots to go along with 4 rebounds and 2 assists.

Knezevic then played for the U20 Serbian national team and has since played with the senior national team.

She plays club ball alongside former Wildcat Jade Loville and current WNBA player Astou Ndour-Fall for Spar Gran Canaria in Spain. Loville was excited for her teammate, commenting on Knezevic’s announcement that “y’all got a dawg.”

Knezevic becomes Arizona’s second commit for next season. She joins guard Lauryn Swann from Long Island Lutheran in New York.

Whether the new Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament might give a young Arizona Wildcats’ team a better chance to advance, head coach Adia Barnes was not enthused about the idea of playing in that tourney a few weeks ago. Once you’ve tasted the NCAA Tournament, going back is not a thrilling prospect in her esteem. As of now, it looks like she won’t have to worry about that.

Regardless of how last Sunday’s Pac-12 Tournament title game turned out, it was going to look good for the Wildcats. If Stanford won, they could say that they beat the regular season and tournament champs. If USC won, they could say that they gave the tourney champs two of its toughest three games over the last week of play.

Just playing in the Pac-12 and ending up above .500 overall and almost .500 in league play was a huge accomplishment. Even if the Wildcats hadn’t faced depth issues, the league was stacked.

All metrics indicate that the Pac-12 was the top league in the nation this year. Whether it’s on the basis of NET, RPI, ELO, or even the human polls, there’s not just consensus but unanimity.