UWM basketball team adds 3 more standout players, including Whitnall's Danilo Jovanovich

Hand it to Bart Lundy and his coaching staff – the UW-Milwaukee Panthers were not shaken by transfer portal madness.

Quite the opposite, actually.

The Panthers welcomed three more talented players to the program on Tuesday: 6-foot-4 point guard TJ Robinson from Immaculate Conception High School in Montclair, N.J., who had previously committed to Louisville; 6-8 forward Danilo Jovanovich, a Whitnall High School product who’s already played at Miami and Louisville; and 6-8 Jamichael Stillwell from Butler County (Kansas) Community College.

Add in Brown Deer product John Lovelace Jr., a Youngstown State transfer, and AJ McKee, a Queens transfer, and that’s five players and counting added to UWM’s roster in just over a month.

Meanwhile, four players have transferred: BJ Freeman , who’s since landed at Arizona State, Zach Howell, Elijah Jamison and Makuei Riek. Howell played in 10 games then underwent season-ending shoulder surgery.

Jamison, one of three players to see action in all 35 games this past season, and Riek, a freshman walk-on who had redshirted, entered the portal in recent days.

Langston Wilson, Angelo Stuart and Dominic Ham have exhausted their eligibility.

“I think we’ve shored up everything and are in great shape,” said Lundy, who has one additional scholarship with which to work as well.

Point guard TJ Robinson is a four-star recruit

Robinson is the crown jewel of the class, a four-star recruit who aside from Patrick Baldwin Jr. becomes the most highly decorated player ever to sign with UWM, and gives Lundy the floor general he’s been seeking since taking the reins of the program.

A minor knee surgery forced Robinson to miss most of last season.

“You know how much we’ve struggled (at that position). I’ve always had point guards,” Lundy said. “That’s part of the opportunity that he saw. We didn’t necessarily have that here. Kind of a scoring point guard, great size at 6-4. Good kid.

“He’s a high-level basketball player who will step on the campus with obviously not college experience, but a lot of high-level experience (in high school and on the AAU circuit).”

Danilo Jovanovich was a runner-up for Wisconsin Mr. Basketball

Jovanovich was a runner-up for Mr. Basketball in Wisconsin as a senior at Whitnall in 2022.

He played in one game at Miami – which advanced to the Final Four – in 2022-23 before redshirting and ultimately transferring to Louisville. He played in 20 games (five starts) for the Cardinals this past season and averaged 1.2 points and 1.1 rebounds in just over 8 minutes per outing.

“He’s kind of a (small forward-power forward-center). Really, really skilled,” Lundy said. “As a freshman on that Final Four team at Miami, he’s an 18-year-old freshman on the oldest team in the country. So, he didn’t get to play a whole lot.

“Then, he kind of stepped into a mess at Louisville. Doesn’t have a lot of numbers, but people in the state know him. He had a lot of different opportunities.”

Jamichael Stillwell an 'elite rebounder'

Stillwell, a native of Atlanta, averaged 13.9 points and 8.4 rebounds in 29 games last season with a high rebounding game of 18. He played his freshman season at Miami-Dade Community College.

“He was leading the country in rebounding by a whole lot in probably early February, came down with mono and was really sick,” Lundy said. “An elite rebounder, athletic. Really gives us edge and toughness, and I think he’s a real winner.”

The portal closes on Wednesday, and Lundy expressed relative confidence that the remainder of the holdovers on the Panthers roster will stay put.

That includes the biggest contributors in big man Faizon Fields and guards Erik Pratt and Kentrell Pullian. Aaron Franklin, Learic Davis and Darius Duffy all flashed potential in their first seasons in the program as well.

“You never say never,” Lundy said. “But we’ve got a pretty good pulse on the guys.”

Lundy also tipped his cap to his assistants and support staff.

“Two seasons of staff continuity,” he said. “Jose (Winston) was the lead recruiter on Danilo and Ben (Walker) was the lead on TJ and Jose coached him (in AAU with Team Herro).”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UWM basketball team adds 3 more standout players, including Whitnall's Danilo Jovanovich