John Calipari on strong first half vs. Kansas: 'We've got good basketball players'

Kentucky went into Tuesday night’s Champions Classic game against Kansas with just eight scholarship players available. Yet, it was the Wildcats who were up 48-41 at the break — and John Calipari, understandably, was in a good mood during his halftime interview.

Rob Dillingham put on a show off the bench during the first half, scoring a game-high 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including 4-of-5 from three-point distance. Adou Thiero also had a strong showing with 13 points through the game’s first 20 minutes.

Kentucky was scoring in multiple ways, which helped offset D.J. Wagner and Justin Edwards’ slow start. However, Calipari knows his team has plenty of scorers, which is why he said anyone can get hot at any given moment.

“It’s fun to watch,” Calipari told ESPN’s Holly Rowe. “You saw Rob go on a run. Well, that could be Antonio [Reeves], it could be D.J., it could be Justin. But how about Adou Thiero? Come on. He was just playing. And Jordan Burks, and Reed [Sheppard] got in and played well.

“We’ve got a good group. We’ve got good basketball players.”

Only Hunter Dickinson was in double figures for Kansas after the first half, leading the Jayhawks with 13 points as only staters scored. He also nailed a shot at the buzzer to cut the deficit to single digits. KU shot just 38.2% from the field in the first half, including just 3-for-12 from three-point territory.

John Calipari says Kentucky is still awaiting word on Zvonimir Ivisic’s status

The biggest remaining question for Kentucky this year is the status of Zvonimir Ivisic. The international sensation is still awaiting clearance from the NCAA for game action, but Calipari remains hopeful there will be some sort of resolution soon.

“We’ve got to hear on (Ivisic) in the next couple of days or he will not,” Calipari said this week.

“The NCAA has 45 days to make a judgement from the time he gets here. So there’s still a couple weeks left in that. So, if we’d have gotten him in earlier, we would know. But it is what it is. It’s not the NCAA – they’ve got a choice. Again, they get information, they ask questions, they get answers from the club and everybody. That’s where it is right now,” Calipari explained. “My hope is they have enough information to make a decision before the game tomorrow.”

Sam Gillenwater contributed to this report.