What’s going on with Big Z? Calipari talks about the status of Kentucky’s Zvonimir Ivisic.
READ MORE
Game day: No. 9 Kentucky 95, Louisville 76
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Thursday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Louisville at the KFC Yum Center in Louisville.
Expand All
Zvonimir Ivisic is headed home for the holidays. Whether or not he ever plays basketball for Kentucky remains a mystery.
Ivisic — the 7-foot-2 recruit from Croatia known as “Big Z” before he even arrived on UK’s campus — announced on social media Wednesday afternoon that he had spoken to head coach John Calipari about his future with the program amid his ongoing eligibility process with the NCAA.
“I met with Coach Cal and discussed going home for the holidays,” Ivisic said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “My family and I worked really hard to gain admission to Kentucky, which took quite a while. With the ups and downs of this process, it’s been a stressful and emotional time for me and my family, but I can tell all of BBN that I’ve done everything I can.
“I’ve obtained a 3.25 GPA. I love this school. I love my teammates and going against other great players every day in practice. I love being coached and challenged and I’m hoping to hear that I can play soon. Go BBN!!”
Ivisic was with his UK teammates Thursday night at the KFC Yum Center, where the Wildcats defeated Louisville 95-76 in the annual rivalry game. Afterward, Calipari addressed the freshman’s status with the team.
Kentucky’s coach confirmed to the Herald-Leader in the postgame press conference that Ivisic will indeed leave the United States and return to Europe for the holidays. Calipari did say that he would return to Lexington before the team’s next game, however. That will be the matchup with Illinois State in Rupp Arena on Dec. 29.
Calipari said Ivisic’s status with the NCAA “hasn’t changed” and UK is still waiting on a ruling regarding his eligibility. He added that Ivisic has had trouble sleeping and eating since arriving in the United States two months ago and said he had dropped from 242 to 219 pounds over that time, which included at least two major illnesses that kept him away from home games in Rupp Arena and sidelined him from practices.
“For his sake, I said, ‘I’m good with it.’ So he’s going to go home and be back before the Illinois State game,” Calipari said. “Hopefully we hear something.”
Calipari also took the opportunity to criticize the NCAA’s process for declaring athletes as amateurs, taking issue with the rules that allow high school athletes in America to retain that status as long as they follow certain protocols while penalizing players who competed for professional teams overseas, as Ivisic did in Europe. He also made reference to the NCAA’s losses in court over the past few months.
“Here’s the crazy thing. NIL,” Calipari said. “You do know juniors are making hundreds of thousands. In high school. … ‘Well, it’s stated different.’ Stop it. That’s why we’re in this position, and that’s why the Supreme Court — and every court — says, ‘No. You can’t do it that way.’ I’m hoping that they look at this.”
Ivisic committed to Kentucky on Aug. 1, but his arrival in Lexington was delayed by the university’s admissions process, which Calipari also acknowledged Thursday night. He was finally cleared as a UK student in early October and first stepped foot on campus Oct. 12, the day before Big Blue Madness. While he enrolled in time to take “part-of-term” courses — an academic path that would have allowed him to be eligible to play during the fall semester — his college basketball debut has been held up by the NCAA’s eligibility process.
Since Ivisic played for a professional team in Europe, his past there — and any potential compensation received while competing — has been scrutinized. So far, the NCAA has not issued a ruling on his playing status, and UK had not offered any recent official comment on the process until Calipari spoke on it after the Louisville game.
The 20-year-old prospect has been practicing with the Wildcats after receiving a waiver from the NCAA to do so, but he has not been permitted to appear in any of Kentucky’s games. The Wildcats — with an 9-2 record and No. 9 national ranking — will play their 12th game of the season next week against Illinois State. SEC play will begin the following week, with the league opener at Florida on Jan. 6.
While Ivisic’s situation was up in the air — and fellow 7-footers Aaron Bradshaw and Ugonna Onyenso were still sidelined due to offseason injuries — 6-9 forward Tre Mitchell emerged as Kentucky’s starting center. Bradshaw and Onyenso both returned to the court earlier this month, however, with Bradshaw earning his first start — in his third college game — in UK’s 87-83 victory over North Carolina on Saturday. Onyenso made his season debut in that game.
ESPN rates Ivisic, who also went through the NBA draft process over the summer before pulling his name out of consideration, as the No. 67 overall prospect for the 2024 draft. It remains unclear if he’ll ever play for Kentucky.
“For him, the best thing — for him, not for me; I’d rather him be with me, stay with me — he needs to get home,” Calipari said. “He needs to be around his family. But he’s done good stuff.”
This story was originally published December 21, 2023 at 9:28 PM.
