FIBA Photo
Maybe he’s an insurance policy in case Ugonna Onyenso and/or Aaron Bradshaw cannot play this season. Maybe he’s the future superstar Kentucky needs to win — or at least challenge for — the 2024 national championship.
However it turns out, 7-2 Croatian Zvonimir Ivisic is now officially part of the 2023-24 roster at Kentucky.
Coach John Calipari officially announced the addition of Ivisic Monday through a news release from UK Athletics even though the coach welcomed the 7-footer to the UK program on Twitter Saturday.
“Big Z is a dynamic and modern big who has guard-like skills but can make a major impact around the rim,” Calipari said. “Defensively, he is an elite shot blocker who moves well for being 7-foot-2 and can impact the game from the outside-in because of his ability to make 3s.
“As excited as he is to play for us, I’m just as excited to have the opportunity to coach him. We can’t wait to get him to campus to get integrated with our team and our culture.”
Ivisic averaged 11.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.4 blocks and 20 minutes per game in the FIBA U20 European Championship for Croatia. He shot 34 percent from 3-point range.
For the past two seasons, Ivišić has been playing in Montenegro for SC Derby. He averaged 5.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game in the Adriatic League. During the playoffs, Ivišić produced his best outing with 22 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks against European League side Partizan.
He’s the eighth freshmen on Calipari’s roster joining Bradshaw, Jordan Burks, Rob Dillingham, Justin Edwards, Joey Hart, Reed Sheppard and D.J. Wagner.
Darius Acuff To Attend Big Blue Madness
Calipari will have one of the nation’s top point guards in Lexington for Big Blue Madness Oct. 14.
On3’s Joe Tipton has reported that five-star junior point guard Darius Acuff will be at Madness. The 6-2 Acuff is the No. 9 overall prospect and No. 1 guard in the 2025 recruiting class. He’s from Detroit but plays for IMG Academy in Florida.
He was one of the first juniors to receive a scholarship offer from Kentucky. he averaged 20 points, 3.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 29 minutes per game in the Nike EYBL Circuit despite playing up a year. He shot 44 percent overall, including 36 percent from 3, and 82 percent at the foul line.
In the last five months, he’s also had scholarship offers from Michigan, Kansas, Michigan State, Nebraska, Indiana, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Providence, Alabama, Missouri, Houston and LSU. He’s set visits to Indiana, Houston and Michigan State along with Kentucky.
6 Responses
Will Onyenso and Bradshaw be happy with bench minutes?
Barry the thing is there were some people calling out Cal of not using the 14 available scholarships to fill out a roster to have a deep bench or in case of some one getting hurt. This year Cal has change his tune to have a deep bench that we lack in the last few years. I don’t see Cal having problems to keep everybody happy. I feel good what Cal has done to get our program back were it should be.
79, I hope you’re right. We have 10 players who could get starter’s minutes on most other teams. Calipari needs to focus more on recruiting a few role players who know they won’t get starters minutes their first year or maybe even their second one. He keeps bringing in OAD kids who won’t be happy with that. Calipari needs an SEC season title, the SEC tournament title, and a Final 4 appearance to get the program back to where it should be. Anything less keeps us in the "also ran" category that nobody talks about on a national level…unless they are talking about teams who underperform.
Time will tell rather Cal gets the job done Barry, it better be this upcoming season.
That is what Kentucky basketball and BBN are becoming known for…wait till next year!
Welcome to UK Big Z!