Senior big man Bonzie Colson was having an amazing individual season for Notre Dame basketball. Now the Irish are set to be without their superstar for two months as he recovers from breaking his left foot in practice this past week.
Bonzie Colson’s injury robs Notre Dame basketball of its lifeblood
The senior forward is out two months after breaking his foot.
Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
The program issued the following statement:
This is devastating on a number of levels.
Colson was having an All-American season
There was a decent chance Colson could have been national player of the year this season. Yes, Oklahoma freshman point guard Trae Young is the clear front-runner at this point, but Colson ranks No. 2 in KenPom’s Player of the Year standings:
KenPom
Colson was Notre Dame’s lifeblood. He’s averaging 21.4 points, 10.4 rebounds, two steals, and two blocks per game.
Colson is the only player to hit those averages in college basketball this season. Also: he’s the only to hit those averages since Sports Reference began tracking statistics from the 1992-93 season:
Sports-Ref
That shows you just how special Colson has been this season: his all-around game has reached a level college basketball hasn’t seen in 25 years.
Colson deserves to make the NCAA tournament as a senior
Notre Dame was a top-five team in the country after stunning Wichita State in the final seconds to win the Maui Invitational. At that point, the Irish had considerable Final Four hype with Colson leading the way.
Now it’s fair to wonder if Notre Dame can even get to the NCAA tournament as it enters a brutal ACC schedule without its star big man. The Irish are currently just outside of the polls at 11-3 and have been defeated by Michigan State, Ball State, and Indiana. The latter two count as bad losses.
The ACC currently has six ranked teams in the conference — the most in the country. It’s the second-best conference in America according to KenPom. Without an all-around force like Colson, it will be hard for ND to crash March Madness.
That’s a shame. Colson has made the NCAA tournament each year of his college career, including Elite Eight runs in his freshman and sophomore seasons. He deserves to be back there as a senior. Let’s see if the Irish are up to the task as he recovers from injury.
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