Hours before Oregon will face Arizona in Saturday night’s Pac-12 title game, the Ducks received some dreadful news.
They’ve lost forward Chris Boucher for the rest of the season to a torn ACL, a source confirmed to Yahoo Sports.
Boucher suffered the injury during the first half of Oregon’s semifinal victory over Cal on Friday night but played through it the rest of the game. The 6-foot-10 senior underwent an MRI on Saturday that revealed the tear.
The loss of Boucher is a massive blow to an Oregon team that won a share of the Pac-12 regular season title and is a win away from capturing the conference tournament championship as well. The Ducks are projected to receive no worse than a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.
One half of one of the nation’s most formidable rim-protecting duos along with Jordan Bell, Boucher averaged 2.5 blocks per game this season and was an impact player for the Ducks at the defensive end of the floor. The Montreal native also averaged 11.8 points and 6.1 rebounds, hurting opponents with his ability to knock down 3-pointers, to run the floor and to finish above the rim.
The loss of Boucher means that Kavell Bigby-Williams will have to play a greater role for the rest of the postseason.
Bigby-Williams, the national junior college player of the year last season, has played sparingly so far this season, averaging 3.1 points and 2.7 rebounds in just over nine minutes per game. The 6-foot-11 native of London is not the freak athlete or dangerous outside shooter that Boucher was, but he’s certainly capable of rising to the occasion.
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