Zvonimir Ivisic wasn’t flashy in Kentucky’s last game. But he might’ve won over his coach.
What Zvonimir Ivisic did Tuesday night in Starkville didn’t match the electric scene of his Kentucky basketball debut or the statistical excellence of his performance three days earlier.
Not even close.
But for Ivisic, what happened over the course of UK’s 91-89 victory at Mississippi State might go down as the turning point in his season.
The 7-foot-2 freshman from Croatia scored only two points and missed four of the five shots he put up. Yet, there he was at the end, on the court during the final minute of a toss-up game after huffing and puffing his way through the second half.
By the end, Ivisic had played 21 minutes, a new career high. In a two-point win, the Wildcats outscored Mississippi State by 17 with Big Z on the court — the best plus-minus on the team, six points better than star of the night Reed Sheppard and 11 better than anyone else in blue.
“It’s telling you that he’s getting better. He’s getting more confident,” John Calipari said the following night on his weekly radio show. “And most of his confidence — where it’s gotta grow — is on the defensive end. And he physically fought.”
And that last bit — at this point in Ivisic’s first and possibly only season of college basketball — is what his coach cares about the most.
Anyone who watched his scintillating debut against Georgia on Jan. 20 already knew that Ivisic could put the ball in the hoop. In the two and a half minutes starting with his first shot attempt as a Wildcat that day, Ivisic nailed three 3-pointers (plus a long 2), an unbelievable flurry in front of the Rupp fans.
And then, he largely disappeared.
Z emerged a couple of weeks later with 11 points in 12 minutes in a 109-77 rout of Vanderbilt, but everyone got in on the action that night. Afterward, Calipari made no promises. He said, seemingly annoyed, that Ivisic had missed a whole bunch of practice with a long list of excuses. “Things that I didn’t even realize could happen. And, I just (said), ‘Kid, do you ever want to play here?’”
Ivisic played 11 minutes in UK’s next game — a loss to Gonzaga — and then largely disappeared for another two weeks.
The day before Kentucky played Alabama last weekend, Calipari said he had a hunch.
“I made a decision yesterday that I was going to play Z,” the UK coach said after that 117-95 win. “And I did get some pushback. But I said, ‘Nope.’ When I wake up and my gut says that’s what I should do, then I’m doing it. He’s waited his turn.”
That day, Ivisic wowed again. He scored 18 points, grabbed five rebounds, blocked four shots and found himself on the court for 20 minutes. It wasn’t the offense that impressed Calipari.
“It’s all physical play,” he said. “Are you physical enough to stay in games?”
On that day, he was.
But there were still questions.
His three best performances came against Georgia, Vanderbilt and Alabama — three teams in the bottom half of the SEC in defensive efficiency. To give a point of reference, all three have been worse than Kentucky on the defensive end this season. (And Vandy has been worse than just about everyone in high-major basketball.)
None of those teams are particularly physical, from a skilled, defensive perspective. All played defensive styles that, according to Calipari, his versatile 7-2 freshman could exploit.
Mississippi State was a much different team. The Bulldogs’ bigs are physical, and they’re capable of bullying weaker players around the rim. State is third in the SEC — behind only Tennessee and Auburn — in defensive efficiency, rated 11th nationally before Tuesday’s matchup.
The day before the Mississippi State game, UK assistant coach Chin Coleman said this one would have a much different feel than the meeting with Alabama.
“It’s a physical game, and so Z’s gotta show some physicality,” Coleman said. “Come up with some balls in a scrum. And if he does that, he’ll be able to show all the stuff that he can do on the offensive side. But it starts on the other end for us. Because we’re going to score, no matter who we put on the floor.”
The following night, Ivisic was the first big off Kentucky’s bench, checking in before the first TV timeout — the Cats down 12-3 when his first action began. He blocked two shots in his first 90 seconds on the court. A dunk down the middle ended State’s 11-0 run and started a 7-0 flurry that put the Wildcats back in the game. All of that set the tone for Ivisic’s night.
“Now he got thrown to the floor three times,” Calipari said. “I’m looking at the officials, ‘What are we playing here? Is this mud wrestling? How are they throwing him to the floor?’ But he fought.”
If a shot went up, Ivisic lowered his body and threw his backside into a Mississippi State player. He flung himself into scrums, sometimes ending up on the floor, but the fact that he was there at all was a breakthrough. And that was all Calipari needed to see to stick with him.
Ivisic was clearly exhausted at points in the second half. Ultimately, he played the most minutes of UK’s three 7-footers for just the second time this season but also the second game in a row.
He pointed out after the Alabama game that he hadn’t played 20 minutes since competing in a FIBA tournament over the summer with the Croatian U20 team. That was before an admissions delay postponed his arrival on UK’s campus, minor injuries and ailments held him back in early practices and an NCAA inquiry kept him out of games until January.
After Kentucky ran Alabama out of town, Ivisic said he “had a lot of fun” and “waited a long time” for another opportunity to play serious minutes. He also acknowledged his shortcomings, accepting that he needed to play a more physical style and improve his defensive awareness to get on the court.
“And I’m working on it hard,” he said, earnestly, that night.
If he can battle with the Bulldogs, he should be able to play with just about anybody. And if that happens, his offensive ability unlocks a lot of possibilities for this Kentucky team, as Ivisic’s explosive pairing with “small-ball” lineups in that Alabama game showed.
One lineup that day — Ivisic with Sheppard, Rob Dillingham, Antonio Reeves and Justin Edwards — outscored Bama 28-9 over a little more than six minutes in the second half.
After blowing out the team at the top of the SEC standings, Ivisic was asked if anyone in college basketball had the gear to hang with the Cats when they played like that. He shook his head.
“No. I think if we play like this, we’re going to do something special this season,” Ivisic said, raising his eyebrows to drive home the point. “So we just need to stay locked in like this. … And good things will happen.”
