Zvonimir Ivisic still has "a lot to learn", but high basketball IQ should get him there quickly

For our money, Saturday night at Rupp Arena was the most electric the building has been since Tayshuan Prince hit five straight 3s against North Carolina over 20 years ago. The unexpectedness of Zvonimir Ivisic announcing himself to the basketball world — especially in mid-January, already a few games into SEC play — by draining several outside jumpers, blocking shots at the rim, and just being downright awesome was something out of a Disney movie.

There wasn’t a member of the Big Blue Nation who truthfully thought Ivisic would come out and drop 13 points (5-7 FG), five rebounds, two assists, three blocks, and two steals in just 16 minutes of action against Georgia. And if you actually do exist, go ahead and send over those lottery numbers for the next drawing.

Even the Kentucky coaches, who had seen Ivisic in practice and recruited him to Lexington in the first place, had no idea what was about to happen. The Georiga coaches certainly didn’t, either.

Not in a million years did anyone see it playing out like it did.

“No, not at all. I don’t think anyone expected that,” UK assistant Chin Coleman said on Monday. “But it’s probably just an eruption of what all he’s been through in terms of being patient. Obviously having some stick-to-itiveness to go do this whole process he’s been through. Then just to finally have the opportunity to get out on the floor was probably an eruption of that. He made some shots. After that it was like shooting in an ocean. It’s good for him. Happy for him. Really happy for him. He finally got the chance to put the uniform on and not actually just go through warmups, he actually got an opportunity to go out there and play. Happy for him.”

As most know by now, Ivisic wasn’t even deemed eligible to suit up and play by the NCAA until a few hours before tipoff. His amateur status had been stuck in purgatory for months, complicated even more by homesickness and actual illnesses since arriving in the United States from Croatia. Big Z was finally freed on Saturday and he wasn’t going to waste his first college basketball moment.

Now, it’s about what happens next. Ivisic wasn’t perfect in his debut. His conditioning is understandably behind. There were a couple of unnecessary turnovers. He even hung on the rim and got hit with a technical foul. What should the expectations be now moving forward, or is still too early to tell?

On the flip side, what the stats don’t show from his first time on the floor, is how smooth and fluid he looked. Ivisic stands at 7-foot-2, 234 pounds, but he moves more like a guard when running up and down the floor. There’s a high level of basketball IQ that is easy to see. (Remember the behind-the-back pass to Antonio Reeves? Of course you do.)

Ivisic may be several months behind most of his teammates, but the Kentucky coaching staff believes he’ll make up that ground quickly.

“He’s got to work on a lot. He hasn’t played. He’s only played one game. He doesn’t completely understand what we’re doing,” Coleman added. “He’s got a lot to catch up to quick but Z is a very high intelligent basketball player. We don’t think that it’ll be a slow process in terms of him learning what we do, what we’re doing, and what we’re trying to get accomplished offensively and defensively. We think that he’ll be able to pick it up rather quickly.

“He’s got a lot to learn, but he’s been in our practices so he’s not that far off. Now it’s a little different when you’re available and you’re going in. So you gotta be attentive to the scout and be assignment sound and understand what we want to do in ball screens and things of that nature. But he’ll be fine.”

Will Ivisic come out and make his first four shots (three of them beyond the arc) when Kentucky faces South Carolina on the road Tuesday night, much like he did over the weekend? The odds say no, but after what we all witnessed on Saturday, it honestly can’t be ruled out entirely. But even if he doesn’t, the staff certainly feels good that he’ll be a piece to the puzzle moving forward.

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