John Calipari explains decreased role for Zvonimir Ivisic vs. Texas A&M

The Arkansas Razorbacks put a scare into the Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday before ultimately falling short. Within that game, head coach John Calipari made the interesting decision to limit the minutes for Zvonimir Ivisic compared to what he’s recently seen.

Following the game, Calipari explained why Ivisic didn’t play more, citing how he was playing on the defensive end of the court.

“The reason I didn’t play Z more,” John Calipari said. “If you were watching the game, why didn’t I play him more? Just so I need to know if you were really watching the game. So, he got scored on, got scored on, got scored on. He didn’t block. He doesn’t block. Then I’ve got to go with the other guy.”

Zvonimir Ivisic played 20 minutes and 21 seconds in the loss to Texas A&M. It was the fewest minutes he’s seen since January 14th against LSU. Since then, Arkansas has played eight games and Zvonimir Ivisic has played at least 21 minutes in all of them. On three occasions, he played at least 30 minutes. Still, against Texas A&M, he would finish with 13 points, six rebounds, and an assist. However, defensively he failed to block a shot and ended up being a -5 for the day.

John Calipari would go on to praise Jonas Aidoo as well. His solid play could, in turn, lead to another lineup and rotation change for the Razorbacks.

“Jonas played well. Jonas played the way I needed him to play. The surgery set him back,” Calipari said. “But Jonas played. I may have to play both of those two together to get the offense, figure out defensively what we’re gonna do and how we’re gonna play. That means Adou [Thiero] maybe will take a little more of a backseat.”

The Arkansas Razorbacks running low on time this season to find the perfect rotation for themselves. With just six games left this season, John Calipari has his team at 15-10 and 4-8 in SEC play, which is 12th in the current conference standings. So, the time is now to make a run and improve seeding for the conference tournament. That won’t be easy in a difficult conference, though, as the Razorbacks’ next game comes against the Auburn Tigers. Auburn is the top-ranked team in the country, according to the AP Top 25 Poll. In total, four of their final six games come against Quad 1 opponents.