Who Are “The Ivan Brothers”?
ByCapital One and their advertising braintrust has cast two gigantic, basketball playing barbarian brothers to lead their charge -and lead you to charge merchandise- into your living rooms during the NCAA Tournament. 
But before the legend of The Ivan Brothers gets too far out of hand, and fans actually start demanding their services at the local university, let us give you the inside scoop of who these cats really are. Click Here For The Ad
*****Below are the two guys who originally thought were ‘The Ivan Brothers’ but we got some good information from a reader and the correct barbarians are named Peter Cornell and Andrew Zahn. Cornell played at Loyola-Maramount and Zahn played a minimal role at the University of Arizona. The story at the bottom is bogus info but it sounded good at the time. Sorry.*****
“Big Ivan” is Fran Vazquez, or more commonly known in Orlando as “The Big Spainard - who decided to stay overseas and deny us of our Twin Towers fantasy”. Vazquez was taken 13th overall in the 2005 NBA Draft by Orlando but decided to continue his career in Spain instead of coming to The States. He currently plays for FC Barcelona in the Spanish ACB League, a league that also houses the great Ricky Rubio who we’ve only been able to catch 30-second glimpses of due to his unimaginable, mind bending, seizure-inducing skills. Vazquez is listed at 6′11″, 240lbs.
“Little Ivan” is believed to be Ryan Pettinella, a former player at Penn and Virginia where he averaged about 10 minutes and 2.5 points per game during his career at both schools. He never really lived up to the promise he once showed when coming out of McQuaid Jesuit High School in New York, where his team was ranked #2 in the Nation by USA Today during his senior year. He did sign a pro contract with Italian club Premiata Montegranaro however and is putting up better numbers than he did in college (13.8 min, 4.2 pts). Pettinella is listed at 6′9″, 250lbs.
So don’t waste your time writing to Coach Calhoun, Calipari or Kennedy because The Ivan Bros. are already spoken for and you’ll have to go through Capital One for their rights.
you have no idea what you are talking about. Wrong and wrong.
So random that these two guys have been pegged as the “Ivan Brothers”, however, it is false information…
I was on the set, and the two “Ivans” are Peter Cornell and Andrew Zahn… Google them… Cornell’s IMDb.com profile actually has a pic of them!
Spread the word!
ROG is exactly right! We got some bogus information from a couple sources and it seemed legit. But The Ivan Brothers are certainly Peter Cornell and Andrew Zahn. We screwed up! Good find Rog Dog.
I’ve been trying to verify that Peter Cornell and Andrew Zahn played the Ivan Brothers. Can you provide me with your sources?
Thank you!
Little Ivan is Andrew Zahn. He’s a friend of mine. Andrew played on my 3-on-3 team that won the Warsaw Classic at the University of Oregon in 2008 and 2009.
This two player are really good. We must keep them and use for the healt of the team.
These two dudes are a marketing mans dream!
Big fan of this site, a bunch of your posts have really helped me out. Looking forward to updates!