Late in the season last year it appeared Bol Bol had a lot of interest in UCLA and Arizona was especially appealing to him. Additionally he was being recruited hard by Kentucky, and their fans were convinced he was going to be a Wildcat in blue instead of red.
Then we learned he was good friends with Shareef O'Neil, who committed to Arizona and was trying very hard to bring Bol with him. In addition Bol's mother and multiple brothers and sisters live in LA. So USC was using the local school / Nike connection angle, and got their hats in the ring for awhile.
So many UCLA fans started writing off Bol ever coming to Westwood.
However it appears Alford and Co. didn't get the memo on that one, and didn't back off an inch on Bol. In the meantime neither did a lot of other schools and Dana Altman up at Oregon looked to be making up some ground.
Fast forward to this summer, and the betting line was Bol would become a blue or red Wildcat, with USC being the Nike choice if he stayed with his family. Then the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that Bol's recruiter for both Arizona and for USC had been arrested.
Additionally word started filtering out that Bol was far less enamored with Kentucky than previously thought. In fact he and his mother had been upset when Coach Calipari had cut him from the US under 19 team, and had never been given an explanation over the months afterwards.
The confluence of Arizona / USC bombshell, combined with the negative update on Kentucky had Bol Bol stock flying all over the ticker. The big winner? UCLA who after getting more of less written, was considered a major player again.
So where are we today? Sort of right back where we started with three teams. Including the original Kentucky and UCLA haven risen from the assumed dead. However it appears Oregon has supplanted Arizona in the top three, with Arizona now trailing behind with USC.
Then we learned he was good friends with Shareef O'Neil, who committed to Arizona and was trying very hard to bring Bol with him. In addition Bol's mother and multiple brothers and sisters live in LA. So USC was using the local school / Nike connection angle, and got their hats in the ring for awhile.
So many UCLA fans started writing off Bol ever coming to Westwood.
However it appears Alford and Co. didn't get the memo on that one, and didn't back off an inch on Bol. In the meantime neither did a lot of other schools and Dana Altman up at Oregon looked to be making up some ground.
Fast forward to this summer, and the betting line was Bol would become a blue or red Wildcat, with USC being the Nike choice if he stayed with his family. Then the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that Bol's recruiter for both Arizona and for USC had been arrested.
Additionally word started filtering out that Bol was far less enamored with Kentucky than previously thought. In fact he and his mother had been upset when Coach Calipari had cut him from the US under 19 team, and had never been given an explanation over the months afterwards.
The confluence of Arizona / USC bombshell, combined with the negative update on Kentucky had Bol Bol stock flying all over the ticker. The big winner? UCLA who after getting more of less written, was considered a major player again.
So where are we today? Sort of right back where we started with three teams. Including the original Kentucky and UCLA haven risen from the assumed dead. However it appears Oregon has supplanted Arizona in the top three, with Arizona now trailing behind with USC.
