The big game is now only a few days away as the Kentucky Wildcats prepare to welcome the Arkansas Razorbacks to town. Obviously the return of John Calipari is the talking point, but the Razorbacks will also have three former Cats make their return to Rupp Arena as well.
For Mark Pope and this Kentucky staff, when they first got to Lexington and started to build a roster, Zvonimir Ivisic made the list of potential options, according to reports after the hire.
However, after conversations, Big Z decided to follow Coach Cal to Fayetteville.
During his pregame press conference on Thursday, Coach Pope was asked about the former players and had a little fun with the question.
“I talked with him a couple of times. He clearly didn’t like me as much as I liked him,” Pope said of Ivisic.
Big Z would have been a perfect fit for the offensive style that Pope runs and would have added some much-needed rim protection for this team. It’s no secret that Pope loves big men who can space the floor, and Ivisic can certainly do that.
The Croatian center shot 37.5% from deep as a freshman and has increased that to 40.6% on 3.4 attempts per game as a sophomore. He’s attempted at least four triples in three straight games and went 6/7 from deep in a non-conference win over Troy, so he’s fully capable of lighting it up if Kentucky doesn’t come prepared.
With Z now in Fayetteville, all we can hope is that he doesn’t have a breakout performance like he did against Georgia last season.