John Calipari: Zvonimir Ivisic illustrates Kentucky's challenge ahead of March Madness

With the postseason here, coaches across the country are going to have to build their final rotations to give their team’s the best chance in their respective tournaments. However, unlike the usual for him in March, John Calipari may not be able to do that with Kentucky this year.

Calipari spoke about his lineup during his postgame press conference after the 93-77 win for the Wildcats over Vanderbilt on Wednesday. He said that, this time around, he may not be able to take anyone completely out of the rotation in their tournament appearances.

“I don’t think so. I don’t think so,” said Calipari.

As Calipari continued, he noted someone like Zvonimir Ivisic, the 7’2 Croation who has now appeared in a dozen games. With where their frontcourt is, all their bigs are quality respectively but aren’t all always playing well simultaneously. That’s why mixing and matching throughout the game to find who’s best might have to be their approach this year.

“Z wasn’t at his best today. Then Aaron (Bradshaw) got pushed around so we had to go with Ugo (Onyenso). But we needed offense at the end to separate so you go back with Z,” Calipari explained. “We can also play Justin (Edwards) at four. We’ve been good with Justin at four, which we were again today.”

Kentucky has depth this season with 10 players averaging double-digit minutes. Nine are posting 15 or more minutes and seven are at 21 or more. They have four options in the backcourt, a duo of true forwards, and four possibilities at center that Calipari can move around however he wants.

In conference brackets and the NCAA Tournament, coaches want to know who’s playing and who can reliably give them something on a game in and game out basis. Calipari can’t necessarily do that, though, because of the roster he has and how many options that they can potentially rely on in any given game.

“Some of it is the feel of the game,” said Calipari. “We’re different. I’ll say it again. We’ve got enough guys that we have room for error,” Calipari said. “Somebody fouls, somebody is just not playing well? Okay. Just be ready for the next game and we’ll finish this without you. Don’t worry about it and we’re all good.”

It’s great to have options in case of emergency, especially in win or go home scenarios. The question now is if its a benefit or disadvantage for the Wildcats come tipoff over this next month.