Freshman Adem Bona Being Held Out of UCLA Men's Basketball's Opener

The Bruins will be without one of their headlining additions to start the season.

Freshman center Adem Bona is being held out of UCLA men's basketball's season opener against Sacramento State on Monday night, in accordance with the NCAA, a team spokesperson told All Bruins. The press release from the team stated he would return to action when the Bruins host Long Beach State on Friday.

No specific reason was provided for why Bona would be missing UCLA's season opener.

Bona did appear in the Bruins' preseason exhibition against Concordia last Wednesday, drawing the start and playing 20 minutes. The freshman put up two points, six rebounds, five blocks and a steal against the Eagles that night.

Because that was an exhibition, the game was technically not governed by the NCAA, thus allowing Bona to appear.

Sources told All Bruins that because Bona is a former international prospect, there are still some final hoops the school has to jump through with the NCAA regarding amateurism before they clear him to play at the college level. It is assumed that whatever needs to get done is approaching the finish line, considering the school was definitive in saying he would appear in UCLA's next game.

When he does finally appear in a regular season contest, Bona will be one of the lynchpins in coach Mick Cronin's post rotation.

The Nigerian-born big man put up 15.5 points, 10.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game with Prolific Prep (CA) his senior year, guiding his team to a 26-7 record and a top-25 national ranking. Bona got plenty of hype himself, becoming a McDonald's All-American and consensus five-star recruit before working his way up to the No. 16 overall spot in the 247Sports Composite rankings.

Over the summer, Bona played for Turkey at the FIBA U20 European Championships in Montenegro. Bona averaged 17.0 points and 10.9 rebounds per game with a player efficiency rating of 24.1 throughout the tournament, also asserting himself as one of the best shot-blockers in the field.

After the highlights from Europe started to make the rounds, Bona went from being looked at as a project to a true one-and-done candidate.

Bona was added to the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award preseason watch list on Oct. 28.

UCLA will get things started against Sacramento State at 8:40 p.m., but it won't be Bona taking the opening tip. With Mac Etienne still easing his way back from the torn ACL he suffered in Oct. 2021, redshirt senior big man Kenny Nwuba is the only true post who is expected to be active for Monday's season opener.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF JAN KIM LIM/UCLA ATHLETICS