Vicky Graff Photo
Zvonimir Ivisic only played 11 minutes against Vanderbilt because he could not stay out of foul trouble. However, when he did play, he had 11 points on 5-for-7 shooting, including 1-for-1 from 3, along with seven rebounds and one block.
What made this total even more intriguing was that the 7-2 Croatian had SIX offensive rebounds. No matter that he got out of position a few times and made some silly fouls, he still had a knack for getting offensive rebounds.
“Z finally practiced, folks. He didn’t practice for two weeks. How are you going to play him? So he finally practiced,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said after the 109-77 win.
“He was far behind because he wasn’t practicing. If you want to know what they were, there were like nine different things. Things I didn’t realize could happen. And I just… ‘Kid, do you ever want to play here?’ Well, you’re going to have to practice.”
Calipari said Ivisic, who was sick and did not play against Tennessee the previous game, had his best practice at UK on Monday.
“So now he’s all excited. Yeah, that’s how this works. He’s a great kid. I mean, he had three turnovers today and all of them we’re like, ‘Why did you do that?’ Like, you know, just make easy plays. You’re such a good player, you don’t have to do that,” Calipari said.
“But I’ll tell you, he’s a difference-maker. You can throw lobs to him. How about, he can throw a lob to you.”
Ivisic did have two assists, including one on a lob to 7-footer Aaron Bradshaw.
5 Responses
Go Blue Cal needs Big Z. so do Cat’s. finally played him and his stats in 11 minutes were off the board. Play 2 Seven footers all the time and look how Cats outrbounded Vandy by a bunch. Put backs. Lob Dunk spot should always have a biggie there. Cal says he hasn’t practice. WHY? Don’t believe that at all
FREE BIG Z
No practice for 2 wks??…what is with the sickness..why does the drama always have to be shrouded in mystery?? I like Z very much but you would think he would be smart enough and have enough experience on the intl stage to not do silly fouls. He seem to have good BB IQ.
This is just more of Calipari’s snake oil.
He really should be arrested for impersonating a major, big time college BB program!
If you don’t practice you don’t play. I think there is something to him not practicing. I heard his European coach say he would be alot better if he wasn’t so lazy. So maybe there is something to that. But Calapari needs better discipline and tell him if you don’t practice your off the team. Not if you don’t practice you don’t play. I still think there is more than what’s being said. All 3 seven footers won’t go pro after this year. I think one or two of them come back or maybe come back and transfer. The problem with this year’s team is we are very deep we go 11 12 deep there is not enough minutes to go around. You could do a platoon system with this team like the 2015 team. Wagner Reeves Thiero Mitchell and Big O. Then bring in Dillingham (the most talented player on the team) Sheppard Burks Bradshaw and Big Z I feel like I’m missing someone but both platoons would be top 10 teams and it would keep everyone fresh whatever platoon is playing better may get a couple more minutes than the rest. You could give everyone 20 minutes a game or whoever hot 25-28 minutes and whoever not 10-15 minutes this keeps the chemistry on the team high and the players would have fun. I don’t like how cal substitutes the players.