John Calipari provides update on Kentucky's three seven-footers

Immediately after Big Blue Madness last Friday, Kentucky men’s basketball head coach John Calipari proclaimed to the remaining crowd that Zvonimir Ivisic, the team’s new 7-foot-2 freshman center, would make his Wildcat debut during the annual Blue-White scrimmage. But in the leadup to Saturday’s game at NKU’s Truist Arena, Calipari broke the bad news: Ivisic wouldn’t be suiting up after all.

“(Ivisic) goes three hard practices. Hard. After the ramp-up, after a 30-hour flight, after all the tests and needles and everything he had to have,” Calipari explained after the scrimmage. “He was cramping his calves, his hamstring, his groin, his knee. I mean he had everything going, ‘my ankle’. I just said ‘Stop’. We can have him for here and then I’d be a man of my word. Or we can worry about the season, and I’m worried about the season. So I want to give him some time to see what this body can take.

“Now I’m like you went three-a-days? How can our one practice wipe you out? Well, they didn’t play this way and it wasn’t as physical. “

Ivisic has only been in the United States since last week. There have been some small rumblings regarding his NCAA eligibility, but Calipari attempted to squash those rumors on Saturday.

“I think he’s fine, that’s not what I’m worried about. What I’m worried about is his body,” he said. “The NCAA stuff — he could play tonight, he could play the next game and the next game. My hope is by that time, they have enough time, and we’ve done our homework before he got on the plane to get over here. But that’s not my worry. My worry is physically, how much can he play, that’s my worry.

“I had every intention, and so did (Zvonimir), that he would be playing this weekend which is why I said what I said… He wanted to play.”

We’ll have to wait just a bit longer for Ivisic’s Kentucky debut. His next opportunity to take the floor will be Friday, Oct. 27 when UK hosts Georgetown College in the first of two exhibition games.

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Bradshaw, Onyenso still on the mend

Calipari made headlines during last week’s Pro Day when he gave a timeline for the returns of Kentucky’s other two seven-footers, freshman Aaron Bradshaw and sophomore Ugonna Onyenso. At the time, he labeled them as anywhere from five to seven weeks away from returning to action. He backed off that projection slightly following the Blue-White Game.

“Aaron, I’m not giving you a date because I don’t know a date. I said five weeks how many weeks ago? I don’t know,” Calipari said.

The only hint that Calipari would reveal regarding Bradshaw and Onyenso is that the latter will likely return after the former. Why? Only because Onyenso’s surgery happened after Bradshaw’s.

“They want to play in the worst way, all three of them,” Calipari added. “It’s driving them crazy. Ugonna probably in my mind will be the last one to join us only because of the dates of the surgeries.”

Pivoting to small ball

Until one or two or all three of those seven-footers make their way onto the hardwood, Kentucky will have to play a completely different style of basketball on both sides of the floor. We’ve already gotten a pretty good taste of what that might look like though. Kentucky went small at GLOBL JAM and did the same during the Blue-White Game.

The result? A high-paced offense that emphasizes transition opportunities and chucking up a ton of three-pointers. The two teams combined for 189 total points and fired up a combined 47 three-pointers. With 6-foot-9 veteran forward Tre Mitchell playing down a position, he’s able to open the floor more as a playmaking, outside-shooting stretch big. He finished with 14 points, 14 rebounds, and three assists in the Blue-White Game.

Obviously, having the seven-footers is preferred, but it also helps when Kentucky’s wings can play down a position, too. 6-foot-7 freshman Justin Edwards and 6-foot-6 sophomore Adou Thiero are big and physical enough to hold their own against opposing forwards. They both went for 26 points apiece and grabbed a combined 19 rebounds in the Blue-White Game.

“Tre is good at the five. Tre’s good at the five,” Calipari said. “How’s Adou and Justin as fours? I think we have enough but it’d be nice to have that one guy with size.”

The major benefit of this style is being able to push the pace, although it can hurt in the rebounding and shot-blocking department. When asked postgame what the benefits and drawbacks are of playing without the seven-footers, it didn’t take long at all for the players to come up with an answer.

“Speed,” Thiero quipped.

“Yeah, we can definitely play way faster without the bigs,” Freshman guard Rob Dillingham, who dropped 40 points in the Blue-White Game, said. “But you saw in Canada we were definitely a little smaller. We can stretch the floor because Tre at the five, he can shoot the three, so it gives more space to get to the rim and just running down the court and running fastbreaks. But it does kinda hurt us that we don’t rebound as much. I feel like they’ll be back real soon honestly. I think we’ll do good without them until they get back. But when we do have them back, it’ll be way better for sure.”

There could be two completely opposite versions of Kentucky basketball this year. For at least the beginning of the season, we’ll get the one that flies up and down the floor.