MBK: Cougs sign acclaimed Macedonian international forward

Continuing to add to his top-50 recruiting class, head coach Kyle Smith officially announced the signing of Macedonian international Andrej Jakimovski to a National Letter of Intent Sunday morning.

Jakimovski officially joins Efe Abogidi (Delta State, Nigeria), TJ Bamba (Bronx, NY), Dishon Jackson (Vallejo, Calif.) and Jefferson Koulibaly (Montreal, Quebec) as players who have signed NLIs with Washington State Basketball for 2020.

"Andrej is someone we have been recruiting for over a year," said Smith. "He has been weighing his options of playing professionally in Europe versus the Pac-12. The allure of competing in the Conference of Champions and getting a college degree were too appealing for him.

"He is a highly skillful playmaker that can play four positions on the offensive end of the floor. He has been a dominant player in his age group and has international experience starting for the North Macedonian national team. He is a good student with high character who fits into our program well."

A 6-7 forward, Jakimovski spent last season playing in the Italian Serie A2 Basket League as a member of Reale Mutua Torino. Playing in the Italian NextGen Under-19 competition, the young shooter averaged 28 points, 14 rebounds, 4.3 assists per game. In addition to his club play.

Jakimovski has been a stalwart in the North Macedonian national system playing both in the youth system and most recently with a call up to the full national team playing in European qualifying play.

At the 2019 FIBA U18 European Championship, Jakimovski led the tournament in scoring at 18.4 ppg while adding 9.4 rpg and 3.1 apg. The year prior, the young forward averaged 9.4 points and 9.4 rebounds per game at the same event.