Just days before Oregon men’s basketball begins the NCAA Tournament, it learned that its most impactful low-post presence will be staying with the Ducks for the 2016-17 season.
Chris Boucher’s petition to have another year of NCAA eligibility was approved Wednesday, making the 6-foot-10 Montreal native a part of head coach Dana Altman’s plans for the future as well as now.
“Chris is an outstanding young man, and we’re excited he’ll be able to continue progress toward his degree and compete for one more season,” Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens said in a statement.
Boucher, who is averaging 12.1 points and 3.1 blocks per game, came to the University of Oregon in 2015 as a transfer from Northwest College in Wyoming after playing his freshman year at New Mexico Junior College. However, he lost a year of eligibility in November due to “when his NCAA eligibility clock started,” according to the Oregon athletic department.
“After completing his academic requirements at the two junior colleges, it was determined that Chris Boucher currently has one year of eligibility remaining. The coaching staff was aware of this possibility during Chris’ recruitment,” a prepared statement said at the time.
It was later learned in a USA Today story that the issue involving Boucher’s timeline as a student-athlete was because of his unusual path to Oregon, which “included a final year of high school as a junior in 2010-11, a year of inactivity in 2011-12, and a year of what would equate to postgraduate study that included 13 games of competition in 2012-13,” Daniel Uthman wrote.
The NCAA deemed the 13 games he played in 2012-13 as college basketball, essentially, meaning his two years spent at New Mexico Junior College and Northwest College were his sophomore and junior seasons.
The Oregon athletic department requested a waiver by March, though, on the grounds that those 13 games should not be considered collegiate competition. Jody Sykes, Oregon’s senior associate athletic director for compliance, told USA Today that the school would also argue that if it weren’t for Boucher’s family hardship he would have completed the 12th grade at his school in 2012, making 2012-13 a postgraduate year, which is a common route for Canada basketball prospects, and not a year of college basketball.
On Wednesday, the NCAA determined that the delay was due to circumstances beyond Boucher’s control, and granted him another year of collegiate eligibility. It’s clearly big news for both Boucher and Oregon.
“Chris is a tremendous young man, and we’re very excited to have him back with us for another year,” Altman said. “He has done everything we’ve asked of him, has been great to work with and I’m glad he will have the opportunity to continue to develop as a player as well as finish his degree.”
Boucher leads the Pac-12 with 106 blocked shots, and is the only player in conference history with at least 100 blocks and also at least 35 three-pointers.
He still has a rookie season to finish too. The Ducks open the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed in Spokane, Wash. Friday. They will play the winner of Wednesday night’s game between Holy Cross and Southern.
Follow Justin Wise on Twitter @JustinFWise