SportsLink

Kong leaving Gonzaga

Posted by Jim

July 16, 2010 3:56 p.m. • 3 comments

Bol Kong is the latest Gonzaga men’s basketball player to exit the program.

Athletic director Mike Roth confirmed the 6-foot-6 Kong has left the program. Roth wasn’t sure of Kong’s plans, but it was his understanding that Kong had returned to Canada. At this point, Kong hasn’t asked for a release to U.S. schools, which indicates he’ll likely play in Canada.

Kong is the fourth Bulldog to depart, following G.J. Vilarino, Grant Gibbs and Andy Poling, who left in January. Gibbs will play for Creighton and Poling is with Seattle Pacific. Vilarino is expected to make his decision in early August.

UPDATE: Here’s Gonzaga’s official release, which states that Kong withdrew from summer school for personal reasons. Find the release here. .

More below.

Kong, a Sudanese native who moved to Canada at age 7, committed to Gonzaga in May, 2008, but it took roughly 16 months for him to land Canadian citizenship and a student visa. The highly-touted recruit first stepped on U.S. soil last September.

He played in 31 games as a sophomore, averaging 12.6 minutes. He averaged 4.5 points and made 42.1 percent of his 3-pointers. His best performances often came in non-conference games. He averaged 3.5 points and made just 32 percent of his 3s in WCC games.

Kong had back-to-back double figures games against Wake Forest and Augustana (12 and 10 points, respectively) and added 14 against Oklahoma on New Year’s Eve. He chipped in 12 points in Gonzaga’s WCC-opening road win at Portland, but only reached double digits in one other conference game (12 points vs. Santa Clara in late February).

Kong played his freshman year at Douglas College in B.C., helping the 07-08 team to what was essentially the Canadian national championship.

Kong figured to be in a battle for playing time at wing/small forward. Starters Demetri Goodson and Steven Gray return in the backcourt, and Manny Arop played well before suffering an injury late last season. Others in the mix figure to be J.C. transfer Marquise Carter, as well as redshirt freshman David Stockton and incoming freshman Keegan Hyland.

Three comments on this post so far. Add yours!

poulsbozagfan on July 16 at 8:08 p.m.
I find it a little odd that the program has lost 4 players in the past couple of months. I liked them all and especially Bol Kong….very sorry to see him leave. I wish him well. Looks to me like the bench is getting thinner…. Ken, Poulsbo
mdriftmeyer on July 16 at 10:02 p.m.
Actually, some of the redshirts are better than last year’s bench and it makes sense with them getting the playing time, these players [with the exception of Bol] would be playing less and that probably doesn’t sit well. It didn’t sit well with Polling. I don’t blame any athlete looking to start or get considerable time.

However, they can’t complain much when their education is covered, no matter what university they attend.
Al_Loysius on July 17 at 7:59 p.m.
Reading between the lines, this sounds like an academic problem. The release says he withdrew from summer school for “personal reasons.” Think about it. If he were leaving because he was unhappy about playing time, etc. he would have left at the end of the year like Gibbs and Vilarino. This is probably an attempt to save him some embarassment by not saying he flunked out. It is all unfortunate, but hopefully things will work out for him in Canada.