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UCLA Basketball: What Alex Olesinski’s injury means to the Bruins

By Mike Regalado

DAYTON, OH - MARCH 13: Jaylen Adams #3 of the St. Bonaventure Bonnies is defended by Alex Olesinski #0 of the UCLA Bruins during the second half of the First Four game in the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at UD Arena on March 13, 2018 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
DAYTON, OH - MARCH 13: Jaylen Adams #3 of the St. Bonaventure Bonnies is defended by Alex Olesinski #0 of the UCLA Bruins during the second half of the First Four game in the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at UD Arena on March 13, 2018 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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UCLA basketball redshirt junior forward Alex Olesinski will be out for two to three months with a stress fracture in his foot. So what does this mean for the Bruins’ depth?

Despite having one of the deepest rosters in recent memory, UCLA basketball head coach Steve Alford will be down one man heading into the 2018-19 season.

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On Wednesday it was reported that redshirt junior Alex Olesinski will miss the start of the season as he recently suffered a stress fracture in his right foot. This is the second time Olesinski will miss time due to injury.

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Back in 2016, Olesinski suffered a left foot injury which kept him out for most of the season, forcing him to redshirt.

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Last year, the Bruin big man logged 4.5 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. He also had the third-best field goal percentage on the team with .526.

Olesinski has been a reserve for most of his time at UCLA, though last season he was forced into playing more minutes due to depth issues. With the season-long suspensions to forwards Jalen Hill and Cody Riley, Olesinski averaged 17.9 minutes per game. That was up from 7.0 minutes in his freshman season.

With the reinstatement of Hill and Riley and the addition of freshmen Shareef O’Neal, Kenny Nwuba and Moses Brown, it might have been hard for Olesinski to repeat those minutes this coming season but he would not have been buried on the bench.

As one of only two upperclassmen (the other is redshirt junior SG Prince Ali who also missed the entire 2016-17 season due to injury), Olesinski brings experience, leadership, and continuity to a team that lost three important pieces from last season. Both Aaron Holiday and Thomas Welsh are now in the NBA and Gyorgy Goloman has graduated, leaving a few big holes to be filled.

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Luckily, Alford reloaded with this latest recruiting class as six players have joined the roster. The addition of this Top 5 class helps out the depth and should help carry the Bruins until Olesinski returns.