{"id":540067,"date":"2026-01-16T06:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T06:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/540067\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T06:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T06:25:11","slug":"hes-got-better-basketball-in-front-of-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/540067\/","title":{"rendered":"‘He’s got better basketball in front of him’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kentucky\u2019s Andrija Jelavi\u0107<\/a> was essentially benched for a five-game span in between non-conference and conference play, but he responded in a loud way once his moment finally arrived.<\/p>\n

After playing at least 10 minutes in each of the Wildcats\u2019 first 10 games, the 6-foot-11 sophomore did not take the floor in wins over Indiana and St. John\u2019s. He then received seven minutes of playing time against Bellarmine before being moved back to the bench for UK\u2019s first two SEC games \u2014 both losses. But his head coach never fully quit on him. <\/p>\n

Mark Pope<\/a> rolled out Jelavi\u0107 for 17 minutes in last Saturday\u2019s 24-point win over Mississippi State. The Croatian big man only posted three points and five rebounds, but it was enough for Pope to feel confident enough about giving him more run. That came in the form of Jelavi\u0107 receiving his first college start during Wednesday night\u2019s 18-point comeback road win against LSU. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he was good,\u201d Pope said of Jelavi\u0107\u2019s performance. \u201cHe made a couple shots for us, which was important. Conceptually, I thought he was pretty solid.\u201d<\/p>\n

In what was easily his best showing yet as a \u2018Cat, Jelavi\u0107 finished his night with a stat line of 11 points (tying his season-high), five rebounds, one block, and one steal in 21 minutes, his most since UK\u2019s loss to North Carolina back on Dec. 2. He shot 4-7 from the field, including a 2-4 mark from deep. In what was a disastrous first half for Kentucky, Jelavi\u0107 was actually the only reason the deficit didn\u2019t balloon even higher than it already was. Through the first eight minutes of the game, he had all four of his team\u2019s points. <\/p>\n

\u201cI actually think he\u2019s got better basketball in front of him,\u201d Pope said. \u201cI was proud of him tonight. He got thrown in the starting lineup and in a really complicated energy first half. And like Yela is, kind of just kept coming and coming and coming. And I thought he gave us a great effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope went on to praise Jelavi\u0107\u2019s ability to keep opposing players in front of him when he\u2019s playing defense. Knocking down a pair of triples helped keep Kentucky\u2019s offense spread out and LSU defenders on their toes. Pope says Jelavi\u0107 is continuing to improve as a rebounder and communicator, which bodes well for his spot in the rotation moving forward. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he had a couple of switches in the second half where we were switching every ball screen, where he kind of saved us a little bit of time in a possession,\u201d Pope said. \u201cHe gave us good minutes tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to injuries and other various factors, Pope\u2019s lineups have constantly shifted throughout the season. But now that we\u2019re four games into SEC play, it feels like he\u2019s getting a better idea of who he wants on the floor. Jelavi\u0107 has earned his spot; now he just has to hold onto it. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kentucky\u2019s Andrija Jelavi\u0107 was essentially benched for a five-game span in between non-conference and conference play, but he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[4734,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-540067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-andrija-jelavic","9":"tag-basketball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115903353598298194","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}