Ivo Simovic joined the Loyola University Maryland men's basketball program as an assistant coach prior to the 2018-2019 season.
With the Greyhounds, Simovic has been integral in the team's success on the court while also serving as a recruiter for a pair of Patriot League All-Rookie Team selections from Spain – Santi Aldama and Golden Dike – and during the summer of 2020, Simovic was named one of the Patriot League's top assistant coaches by Stadium's Jeff Goodman.
Aldama became the first Loyola player selected in the first round of the NBA Draft when he was selected No. 30 overall by the Memphis Grizzlies in 2021 after earning All-Pariot League First Team recognition during the 2020-2021 campaign. He was one of two qualified players in NCAA Division I to average more than 20 points and 10 rebounds per game that season, averaging 21.2 points and 10.1 rebounds. He was also the first player in Patriot League history to average 20 or more points and 10 or more rebounds per game.
A veteran coach with NBA, European and NCAA experience, Simovic came to the Evergreen campus with considerable background on several levels of the basketball landscape. Most recently, he was an assistant coach at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for the 2017-18 season.
Simovic, who is a native of Belgrade, Serbia, was on the coaching staff at the University of Hartford from 2015-17, first as an assistant coach and then as the Hawks' associate head coach during the 2016-17 campaign.
He was the head coach and sports director for CB Espacio Torrelodones near Madrid, Spain. He helped the organization draw some of the top Spanish talent during his eight-year run with the program. Simovic was the Torrelodones' head coach in Liga EBA from 2007-2009, and he then became the general manager and head coach of the organization's U-18 and U-20 teams.
Simovic, 39, was responsible for all basketball development in the club, including signing senior and youth players, mentoring coaches and coaching various squads. He led the Torrelodones' U-18 team to its age group's national semifinals on three occasions. One of the coaches he mentored, Darko Rajakovic, is now an assistant coach for the Grizzlies.
During his final years in Spain, Simovic also served as an international scout for the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, and he was an assistant coach for the organization's NBA Summer League Team in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2013 and 2014; he received an NBA Championship Ring after the Spurs won the 2014 title.
Simovic spent the first seven years of his professional career as head coach and recruiting coordinator for the Red Star in Belgrade. There, he coached several players who played on youth and senior national teams for Serbia and Montenegro that won several European Championships.
Red Star won the 2004 Serbian Championship under Simovic's leadership. The side also finished as the runner-up in Serbia in 2007.
He graduated from Belgrade's Union University with a bachelor's degree in industrial economic management in 2013.
Simovic and his wife, Jelena, have two children, Ema and Marko.
