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Kentucky transfer Zvonimir Ivisic made history when he followed head coach John Calipari from Lexington to Fayetteville this past offseason, as “Big Z” became just the second Croatian ever to suit up for the Razorbacks. He joined Davor Rimac, a member of the 1994 national championship-winning team.
The 7-foot-2 Croatian made even more history with his performance on the basketball court in Wednesday night’s 65-49 win over Troy, producing a stat line that had never been recorded in NCAA history.
Ivisic finished with 19 points on 6-of-7 shooting from behind the arc, while also adding five blocks and three steals. He became the first player on record in NCAA history to make six threes, have five blocks, and three steals in a single game.
The performance comes after associate head coach Kenny Payne said in the Troy preview press conference that there was still plenty more to unlock in Ivisic’s game.
“I think he’s gotten better,” Payne said. “By no mean, me personally, am I satisfied with where he is because I think there’s more in there. The goal is to dig it out and to dig it out quickly, for him to understand his role on this team. Really, Z is a freshman. He went to Kentucky last year and he wasn’t really cleared to play ’til late and he didn’t get a chance to get a rhythm into college basketball. So this is his first time.
“He’s learning. He’s learning the responsibility of being in shape, he’s learning the responsibility of bringing a physicality to this and the responsibility of you have to be the last line of defense and create rim protection for this team to be successful. We need him, we love him. He has gotten better, but we got a long way to go.”
At Kentucky last season, Ivisic appeared in just 15 games, including an explosive debut against Georgia where he scored 13 points and added five rebounds and three blocks in just 16 minutes. From there, he was inconsistent, though, playing 10 or fewer minutes in six of the final 14 games last season. He…
Source link : https://arkansas.rivals.com/news/ivisic-puts-up-historic-numbers-in-win-over-troy?yptr=yahoo
Author : HawgBeat
Publish date : 2024-11-14 18:18:00
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