John Calipari talks Adou Thiero’s injury, Zvonimir Ivisic’s NCAA process during radio show
The games are coming thick and fast for the Kentucky men’s basketball program.
As John Calipari alluded to during his postgame press conference Saturday in Florida, UK will now be playing twice a week with SEC play underway.
Following Saturday’s comeback win in Gainesville, the Wildcats will be back in action Tuesday inside the friendly confines of Rupp Arena against Missouri.
The matchup will pit a still No. 6-ranked UK squad (11-2 overall, 1-0 SEC) against a Missouri team (8-6, 0-1) that has fallen off a bit in head coach Dennis Gates’ second season at the helm.
The Tigers began SEC play with a 75-68 home loss to Georgia over the weekend.
Prior to Tuesday’s game, both Calipari and Gates shared the same space Sunday night: They were among the slew of college coaches and recruiters on hand at Woodford County High School in Versailles to watch star class of 2025 guard recruit Jasper Johnson score 37 points in his Central Kentucky homecoming.
Ahead of Tuesday’s game against Mizzou, Calipari joined UK radio announcer Tom Leach for another edition of his weekly radio show.
Among the topics discussed?
Newly minted SEC Freshman of the Week Aaron Bradshaw, the latest on the injury status of sophomore Adou Theiro and more.
Aaron Bradshaw named SEC Freshman of the Week
Saturday was a tale of two halves for Bradshaw, UK’s freshman big who is still only just a few games into his college career after recovering from a foot injury suffered in March 2023 that required surgery last June.
In the first half against the Gators, Bradshaw was ineffective: His only counting statistic of note was a defensive rebound in 10 minutes on the court.
“We had to take him out, like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Calipari said. “’Can you even play in this game?’”
Calipari went so far as to explain that after one time that he took Bradshaw out of the game, the freshman inquired as to why he was being substituted.
“I don’t go for that,” the veteran coach said. “I’m not an AAU coach. .... That’s why I went to him on the bench (and said), ‘We don’t do that here.’”
Things turned around in a big way for the 7-foot-1 Bradshaw in the second half, and particularly so in the closing minutes of the game.
All 10 of Bradshaw’s points against Florida came in the final 9:05 of game time. He also added seven rebounds, two steals and a block in the win.
The crowning moment for Bradshaw, and as a result Kentucky, came with a block on one end of the court and a made-3-pointer on the other end. That made shot, which came with less than 90 seconds left, swung Kentucky back into the lead for good.
For the season, Bradshaw is now averaging 7.7 points and 4.7 rebounds per game across six contests.
Bradshaw is the third UK freshman to earn the conference’s weekly honor this season, along with Reed Sheppard and D.J. Wagner (both have been given the honor twice).
Adou Thiero unable to practice
One of the reasons why Kentucky’s conference-opening win at Florida was so impressive was because it came in shorthanded fashion.
Sophomore Adou Thiero — who has averaged 7.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game this season — missed his second straight game for the Wildcats with “general soreness,” per the program. And it doesn’t sound like Thiero will be able to play in Tuesday’s game against Missouri, either.
Calipari said Thiero didn’t practice with the Cats on Monday.
“It’s still day-to-day stuff,” Calipari said. “I don’t know if they have a plan to see if he can go (against Missouri).”
In total, Thiero has missed three of UK’s 13 games this season: He also missed UK’s second game against Texas A&M-Commerce while in concussion protocol.
The sophomore standout has proved central to Kentucky’s ability to rebound the ball. His standout performances have come in two of the highest-profile UK games as well, with a 16-point, 13-rebound effort against then-No. 1 Kansas in the Champions Classic and a four-block outing against then-No. 9 North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic.
Calipari talks about freshman center Zvonimir Ivisic
No, there still hasn’t been a change regarding the up-in-the-air status of freshman center Zvonimir Ivisic.
After an extended holiday break back home with family members in his native Croatia, Ivisic was back with the UK team for Saturday’s road game at Florida.
“He’s in Croatia. He wasn’t in Buffalo!” Calipari exclaimed when recounting the rumors of Ivisic not returning to Kentucky after the holidays.
“He came back, you know why? Because he loves it here, he wants to play with this team and he said, ‘I”m going to be patient.’”
The lack of a resolution with Ivisic’s ongoing NCAA eligibility status came to the forefront during pregame activities in Gainesville: Fellow freshman Jordan Burks walked into the Stephen C. O’Connell Center wearing a “FREE BIG Z” shirt, and Burks was joined by fifth-year forward Tre Mitchell and Ivisic himself in posing with the shirt during pregame warm-ups.
On Monday night, Calipari again ranted about Ivisic, from what he’s brought to UK practices to the lengthy NCAA review process that has kept him on the sideline for games.
“He practiced (Monday), he’s doing all of the stuff for the guys. He’s a great teammate,” Calipari said of Ivisic. “I’m anxious for this to happen for him.”
Calipari shared that an exercise he recently completed with the UK team was having each player select a word to live by for 2024.
What was Ivisic’s word?
“Patience.”
This story was originally published January 8, 2024 at 7:39 PM.
