Kentucky announces Zvonimir Ivisic cleared to practice, still not fully cleared for competition

An offseason full of drama continues for the Kentucky basketball program, even as the first exhibition games is roughly 24 hours away.

The latest major offseason storyline for the Wildcats was getting Croatian big man Zvonimir Ivisic over to the United States and into the UK hoops program. After clearing hurdles to qualify for the university academically and to get overseas, Kentucky is now saying he is cleared for team practice and scrimmages, but is not yet cleared to take the court against outside competition.

Here was the latest on Ivisic via a statement from the University of Kentucky, which KSR’s Tyler Thompson posted to Twitter. It reads:

“As a department, we want to clarify, Zvonimir Ivisic has been cleared to practice and play in all intrasquad games. That said, he can not compete against outside competition, including exhibition games, until he is approved by the NCAA. There was miscommunication in this regard and, as we always do, we plan to adhere to NCAA rules. Until he is fully cleared, Zvonimir will be withheld from games against outside competition.”

Alas, the Ivisic saga continues. Kentucky had to release this statement clarifying the situation since John Calipari insinuated yesterday that he’d probably hold Ivisic out of the first exhibition against Georgetown before likely letting him play in the second one against Kentucky State.

However, Calipari apparently likely should not make those sort of comments, since the NCAA has yet to clear Ivisic. Now, maybe Calipari knows something the rest of us don’t — and that’s possible, perhaps even likely — that Ivisic’s NCAA clearance will come within the next couple of days and is a matter of dotting i’s and crossing t’s, as KSR’s Ryan Lemond hinted at on the radio Wednesday morning. But that’s not the case just yet.

So, there is yet another change of course on when Kentucky fans can expect this mysterious seven-footer to actually step on the basketball court in live action against another team.

For Kentucky, this marks the third big man out of three with offseason drama. Tre Mitchell is set to be the starting five for now, but he’s really more of a four — and Kentucky was extremely lucky to land him after he became available in late June from West Virginia.

Meanwhile, Aaron Bradshaw said he wanted to play the four this season, and then Kentucky tried to recruit a more traditional five alongside him.

Bradshaw later suffered a foot injury, which is basically the worst part of the body for a seven-footer to injure. His timeline has already been delayed more than once. If he re-aggravates that foot in any way during his recovery or during the season, you can bet he’ll be out a while.

Ditto for Ugonna Onyenso, who is another seven-footer who has a foot injury. Except his situation is worse than Bradshaw’s, since he suffered it in July during Kentucky’s Canadian tour and Calipari has said that he’s a little behind schedule with his recovery.

There was also drama with him this offseason when Kentucky looked to recruit other bigs. Onyenso even entered the Transfer Portal but opted to return for his sophomore season.