John Calipari says it may be time to get aggressive with the NCAA on Zvonimir Ivisic

Another day has come and gone without clarity on Zvonimir Ivisic‘s eligibility case. Midway through the season, nobody has a single clue whether the 7-2 freshman will be able to play or not.

“We haven’t heard anything on Z,” John Calipari said during his call-in radio show Monday evening.

The Kentucky head coach left it at that before a caller asked him to go into detail on Ivisic’s situation and why the NCAA is dragging its feet. That got Calipari’s gears turning (and grinding) a bit.

“Well, I grabbed him today and I told him, ‘Look man, I feel so bad.’ I said to him, ‘I’m not worried about my team, this is you as a person that you’re having to go through this.’ I don’t know what he’ll add to our team,” he said. “He’s pretty good, but we’ve got good players. It’s not fair to him. It took a long time to get him admitted — again, a 3.2 (GPA) student, smart kid, all the good stuff. And then it’s taking the NCAA even more time to look at the facts. There are European kids playing all around the country, but they’re playing and he’s not?”

If Ivisic doesn’t receive an answer sooner rather than later, Calipari says, it may be time to get rowdy about the entire ordeal.

“Hopefully we hear something,” Coach Cal said. “I just know that around the country, people are being very aggressive when it comes to different stuff with the NCAA. My hope is if this thing lingers too much longer, we become aggressive too.'”

The good news? Ivisic isn’t sweating it. As bad as he wants to play and make an impact, he has already waited this long. What difference does a little bit longer make? When his time comes, he’ll be ready.

“When I said, ‘I feel bad for you, kid,’ he said ‘Coach, I’m good. I’m good,'” Calipari said of his conversation with Z. “‘I’ve gone this long, I can wait. I really want to help the team and I want to play, but I’m good. Don’t worry about me.'”