At the end of his sophomore season at Green High School in Uniontown, Ohio, Nikola Bundalo was still a largely unheralded high school prospect. By the end of April, that all changed.
The skilled 6-foot-9 power forward’s stock exploded after impressing college coaches and media members while playing with Wildcat Select at multiple events on the AAU circuit this spring. Bundalo said he only had two scholarship offers beforehand, and both from mid-major programs. Afterward, attention came flooding in from high-major programs in a hurry, and Ohio State was among the first to take notice.
Bundalo was back home from the event when he received what he assumed to be an innocuous call from Ohio State assistant coach Jake Diebler.