Rumors had begun to swirl that the Kinston native's recent shooting slump may have been due to injury, and now it seems that this has been substantiated. UNC has confirmed that Bullock has a torn lateral meniscus and will miss the remainder of this season.
While this is undoubtedly a blow for Bullock himself, a self-proclaimed lifelong Tar Heel fan who now will miss his first March wearing the baby blue, I don't know how much it will matter for the team as a whole. While this team continues to struggle with a consistent outside shot, a very significant part of those struggles have been Reggie's prolonged slump. Outside of a nice 3-point play over Scott Wood and several run-out hustle plays, Bullock has done very little since the first half against Boston College roughly a month ago. And I don't know that I personally ever expected him to do much more this year. His injury opens up playing time for Leslie McDonald, who has looked better in recent games against NC State and Maryland and has a more versatile offensive game at this point in their respective careers. Although it is always difficult to lose an important member of the rotation this late in the season, I don't think it will necessarily lower the Heels' ceiling in any way. Some combination of McDonald and Justin Watts will be able to step up and fill the void in minutes.
Elsewhere in college basketball on this first day of March:
- BC jumped all over hungover Virginia Tech, in a result that should surprise absolutely no one save Dicky V, who already has the Hokies in his bracket. As an ACC fan, it's important for the conference in this mediocre season to get at least four teams into the Dance, especially given the relative "softness" of the bubble this year. For that to happen, it would be nice if Tech could pull out this victory to prevent a possible must-win in Littlejohn on Saturday.
- Purdue is putting together a quiet run toward a darkhorse number 1 seed by beating Illinois by 8. At the same time, they continued the Illini's run from preseason darling to postseason dissapointment. Bruce Weber had a lot of success early on with Illinois using momentum inherited from Bill Self, but he has to feel his seat getting much warmer in Champaign after failing to live up to expectations this year.
- Florida just does not look like a top-15 team to me when I watch them play, particularly on offense. But they just keep winning through a solid SEC schedule, pounding Alabama by 20+ at home tonight.
- NC State drops its 10th ACC game of the season for the 5th consecutive season (or 100% of Sidney Lowe's career) by losing by 9 on the road to UVa. The Wolfpack continue to sit squarely on the NIT bubble and will likely need to win at least 2 more games to be in.
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