SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – UCLA freshman Nikola Kusturica has been selected to the watch list for this season’s Julius Erving Award, which honors the nation’s top collegiate small forward.
Kusturica enrolled at UCLA this summer after having led Serbia’s under-17 team at the FIBA U17 World Cup in Istanbul, where he averaged 24.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists in seven games. He shot 46.8 percent in the tournament and registered a team-best 37 points in Serbia’s loss to the United States in the gold medal contest. Kusturica has started as one of two forwards in each of UCLA’s two exhibition games this month.
The Julius Erving Award annually honors the nation’s best small forward in NCAA Division I men’s basketball. Named in honor of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Julius Erving, the award is presented annually by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Erving was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993 after a 17-year professional career.
College basketball’s annual position-by-position watch lists, as announced by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, recognize the top players at each position heading into the 2026-27 season.
As the college basketball season progresses, the watch list for the Julius Erving Award will remain fluid, with student-athletes eligible to be added before the selection of the finalists. Fans are encouraged to participate in the award’s fan voting in each of three rounds, starting on Friday, Oct. 30. The watch list will narrow to 20 players in February, before the list gets trimmed down to 10 top student-athletes and then five, in March.
In late March, the five finalists will be presented to Erving and the Hall of Fame selection committee. The winners of this season’s 2027 Julius Erving Award will be presented on a to-be-determined date.
The other four positional awards in men’s basketball include the Bob Cousy Award (point guard), Jerry West Award (shooting guard), Karl Malone Award (power forward) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award (center).
BYU’s AJ Dybantsa was honored at the end of the 2025-26 season as the Julius Erving Award winner.
2027 Julius Erving Award Candidates
Amari Allen (Alabama)
Bruce Branch III (BYU)
Coen Carr (Michigan State)
Davis Fogle (Gonzaga)
Amani Hansberry (Virginia Tech)
Juke Harris (Tennessee)
Thomas Haugh (Florida)
Shelton Henderson (Miami)
Ivan Kharchenkov (Arizona)
Nikola Kusturica (UCLA)
Colben Landrew (UConn)
Milan Momcilovic (Kentucky)
Billy Richmond III (Arkansas)
Pryce Sandfort (Nebraska)
Dame Sarr (Duke)
Andrej Stojakovic (Illinois)
Tyran Stokes (Kansas)
Anthony Thompson (Ohio State)
Aiden Tobiason (Syracuse)
Tounde Yessoufou (St. John’s)
*players can play their way onto and off the list during the season.