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There was speculation weeks ago that UCLA would not have Jonah Bolden for the upcoming basketball season. Today, that speculation became a fact when Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports first reported that Bolden is going to forego his remaining eligibility at UCLA and will turn pro.
UCLA's Jonah Bolden will forego his final two years of eligibility and turn pro, per release. Would have been key piece for Bruins.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) July 26, 2016
Where will he play? There still seems to be some speculation about that. Fox Sports Australia is citing sources who are saying that he will play this coming year in Europe. But, Adam Zagoria is citing school sources as saying that he will return to Australia to play professionally there.
Is the loss of Bolden a blow to this year’s Bruin basketball team? On one hand, the answer is definitely yes. On the other hand, readers of Bruins Nation may not have been counting on having Bolden eligible for this season anyway.
As DCBruins pointed out in his recent article, "this means that freshmen TJ Leaf and Lonzo Ball may be starting from day one for UCLA, leaving us significantly weakened on defense."
Regardless, Steve Alford’s job just got harder and his seat will continue to get hotter if UCLA stumbles out of the gate.
Go Bruins.