Report: UCLA assistant Ivo Simovic leaving for Toronto Raptors staff

A bit of bad news for the UCLA hoops program this Monday morning. According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Bruins assistant Ivo Simovic is leaving Westwood to take on an assistant role with the Toronto Raptors under new head coach Darko Rajakovic. Here was Thamel’s report of the move:

“Sources: UCLA basketball assistant Ivo Simovic is finalizing a deal to become a Toronto Raptors assistant coach. He joins the staff of fellow Serbian Darko Rajakovic, who he has worked with previously in Serbia and Spain.”

So, Simovic is off to the pros and you can’t blame him for taking an obvious promotions to go from college assistant to NBA assistant. Just a no-brainer move for Simovic, but one that leaves UCLA in an odd spot.

Simonic piloted UCLA’s overseas recruiting efforts, which helped them land a pair of incoming freshmen in the last month: Slovenian guard Jan Vide and French wing Ilane Fibleuil. Plus, their prize transfer this offseason was Utah’s Lazar Stefanovic, a fellow Serbian like Simonic. With him as Cronin’s assistant, the Bruins roster has slowly morphed into a very international group.

Now, Simovic is heading out of the United States as all his recruits are just coming in. Meanwhile, Mick Cronin is left to guide a group that lost nearly all of its 1-4 players a year ago and replenished their departures with a slew of foreign players that were known intimately by the guy who just left. If you’re skeptical about UCLA hoops next season, it’s for good reason.

Aside from Adem Bona, there’s really no proven star power and you’re really banking on this freshman class — recruits both domestic and abroad — to fill out this roster and perhaps even lead it. And their class, while solid with those international additions, doesn’t feature a five-star or top-50 player in the On3 Industry Rankings. However, they did round out with 4-5 guys in the top-100 depending on where Vide would be slotted (Fibleuil is 84th).

UCLA was already sailing into foggy waters with brand new international flavor and true freshmen accounting for most of their roster. Now, the guy who helped bring in all those foreigners isn’t around to aid their transition into real college ball — and with a demanding coach like Mick Cronin.

There’s a lot of ingredients for catastrophe sitting on the cutting board for UCLA this coming season. Let’s see if Mick Cronin is a real ninja with the knife in his hands blending it all together.