Even if Kentucky basketball recruit ‘Big Z’ gets into UK, is it already too late to play?

With each passing day, it seems less and less likely that international basketball recruit Zvonimir Ivišić will end up in a Kentucky Wildcats uniform this season.

The 7-foot-2 prospect from Croatia committed to the Cats on Aug. 1 and was expected to be in town by the end of last month. Those plans have obviously hit a snag, and it’s left the final addition to John Calipari’s 2023-24 roster in limbo as the college basketball season nears.

Ivišić has not yet arrived on campus, and — as of Thursday morning — the 20-year-old had not yet been admitted to the university as a student.

So far, Ivišić has remained silent on the situation, and neither Calipari nor anyone within his program have publicly commented on the holdup. Following reports from UK fan sites that Ivišić’s admission into the university was being held up solely by the school’s admissions office — as well as widespread criticism from Kentucky basketball fans on social media — the university released a statement on the matter last week, the only official comment to that point.

“Unfortunately, misinformation is being perpetuated regarding the admission status of someone wishing to attend the University of Kentucky,” said the statement from UK spokesperson Jay Blanton. “The truth is members of our university — from our athletics department to our administration and all other units — are working together efficiently and in a manner that is consistent with the institution’s admissions standards. These are often complex issues, with multiple aspects to them, and they require many people, working to do the right thing for an individual wishing to attend the university. That is what we are doing. Spreading unfounded rumors helps no one.”

As the uncertainty continues, an increasingly relevant question: How late is too late for Ivišić to get cleared to play for the Wildcats, even if he gets admitted as a student?

UK’s fall classes began Aug. 21, and the last day to add a class — according to the university’s academic calendar — was Aug. 25. Friday will mark three full weeks since that latter date.

Blanton told the Herald-Leader on Thursday that the university would not comment on any prospective student’s admission situation or status, but he did provide some clarity on the general possibility of a student enrolling at UK beyond the official deadline to add classes.

According to Blanton, it’s possible for newly admitted students to enroll in classes at UK well after the semester begins, and such scenarios have occurred in the past.

“We have historically admitted students for part-of-term courses … permitted they have met all admissibility standards to the university in conjunction with the academic college where the student has identified their plan of study,” Blanton said.

In Ivišić’s case, he would need to be accepted as a UK student by undergraduate admissions and then cleared to enroll for “part-of-term” courses by the specific college in which he will be studying. (Even if a student has an undeclared major, as many freshmen do, there are “part-of-term” options that would be available to those students.)

Blanton said part-of-term courses in the fall semester begin in mid-October, a timeline that would give UK and Ivišić another month or so to work toward a possible solution.

Enrolling at such a late date — if it’s still a possibility in Ivišić’s particular case — also shouldn’t have any negative impact on his athletic eligibility for the 2023-24 basketball season. Blanton said that as long as a student is fully admitted and enrolled in 12 hours of courses, that student would be considered “full-time” by the NCAA and should be eligible for the fall semester. Students enrolled in “part-of-term” courses would meet those qualifications.

So, while the specific details of Ivišić’s case remain officially murky, there would, in theory, still be plenty of time to get him on campus and on track from an academic standpoint, if that’s something that both sides remain interested in.

Next steps for Ivišić

But even if Ivišić is granted admission by UK in the coming days — which, to be clear, seems like more of a long shot as time progresses — it’s possible that other hurdles will stand in his way of suiting up for Kentucky during the 2023-24 season.

Reached last week by the Herald-Leader, an NCAA official could not confirm that Ivišić, who played professionally in Europe, had been ruled eligible to play college basketball this season from an amateurism standpoint.

And even if Ivišić were to arrive on campus soon, he’d already be further behind than originally planned from the perspective of getting acquainted with his new teammates, who played four exhibition games and a scrimmage against international competition in Canada in July and have had various practice sessions and team workouts both before and after that tournament.

While specific dates for Kentucky’s preseason are not yet set, the Wildcats can begin fully practicing Sept. 30, with the annual Big Blue Madness event expected to take place Oct. 13.

UK will also compete in the Blue-White Game and play two exhibition games before the regular-season opener against New Mexico State on Nov. 6.

If Ivišić isn’t enrolled at Kentucky in the next few weeks, he could look for a fit in college basketball elsewhere (though he’d still almost certainly face multiple hurdles to play this season at a different school), continue with the UK admissions process in hopes of debuting with the team once the spring semester begins in early January (an unlikely scenario), or stay in Europe and continue to prepare for the 2024 NBA Draft, in which he’s viewed as a possible second-round pick.

Ivišić averaged 11.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.4 blocked shots in 19.4 minutes per game for Croatia in the FIBA U20 European Championship this summer, and he most recently played professionally for SC Derby, a team based in Montenegro.

The other two centers on Kentucky’s roster — sophomore Ugonna Onyenso and freshman Aaron Bradshaw — are both currently sidelined with foot injuries.

Bradshaw injured his foot in late March and underwent a procedure in June. Onyenso suffered a foot injury during Kentucky’s trip to Canada in July and underwent a procedure a few days later.

The timelines for recovery offered by UK coach John Calipari this summer have been somewhat vague, though he said in June that he did not expect Bradshaw to miss any of the regular season, and his initial comments on Onyenso’s injury indicated that he, too, would be back in time for the 2023-24 campaign.

West Virginia transfer Tre Mitchell — a 6-9 forward — played the majority of the minutes at the “5” spot during Kentucky’s trip to Canada in July.

UK basketball officially announced the addition of Ivišić on Aug. 14, nearly two weeks after his public commitment. Calipari commented on the newest Wildcat for the first time as part of that formal announcement.

“Big Z is a dynamic and modern big who has guard-like skills but can make a major impact around the rim,” Calipari said. “Defensively he is an elite shot blocker who moves well for being 7-foot-2 and can impact the game from the outside-in because of his ability to make threes. As excited as he is to play for us, I’m just as excited to have the opportunity to coach him. We can’t wait to get him to campus to get integrated with our team and our culture.”

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