The Bol Bol era at Oregon might be over before it could really ever begin. The 7-foot-2 Ducks center, who hadn’t played since Dec. 12, could be done for the season with a stress fracture in his left foot, as first reported by 247 Sports’ Matt Prehm.
After years of built-up expectations, a healthy Bol lived up to the hype in his first nine games with Oregon, putting up 21 points per game and 9.6 rebounds as well as an offensive rating of 116.5 on 30.1 percent usage. While those stats are obviously a bit skewed by some weak competition, Bol looked solid against every opponent, especially with a 26-point outing on his 19th birthday in a win against Syracuse. Without Bol, both Oregon and the Pac-12 conference as a whole lose their best player, and slip even closer to irrelevancy.
Bol was always expected to be a one-and-done, and the injury doesn’t seem to change that, as Prehm reported that he’s expected to rehab for the draft outside of Oregon’s basketball program. It’s a bummer that the world won’t get to see more of Manute Bol’s son tearing through the overmatched likes of Washington State and Cal. But despite the foot problem, those nine games he did play will be enough to keep NBA teams interested.