Cal Forward BJ Omot Is Out for the Rest of the Season

Cal men’s basketball coach Mark Madsen confirmed on Monday what had been suspected for a while: Bears forward BJ Omot is out for the rest of the season.

Omot, an athletic 6-foot-8 forward who was a first-team all-Summitt League selection last season as a sophomore, transferred from the University of North Dakota to Cal prior to this season. He played in Cal’s first four games of this season and started two of them, including the 71-66 road win over USC on November 17.  That was the last game Omot played this season before being sidelined by injury. He averaged 10.8 points, which is third-best on the team, and 3.0 rebounds. He made 44.4% of his field-gal attempts and shot 35.3 % on three-pointers.  His best game came in the road loss to Vanderbilt, when he had 15 points and six rebounds.

“BJ Omot is out for the season, and it’s a devastating blow to our team,” Madsen said Monday. “He’s an elite on-ball perimeter defender. We got this indication on this medical opinion some time last week, and so BJ Omot is out for the season. Other guys are going to have to step up.

“BJ has been incredibly diligent with his rehab, and ultimately it’s a very difficult call, I think, for the doctors and for BJ, but medically he’s just not there yet, and you don’t want to take a chance with an injury like the one he has.”

It’s not clear what Omot’s specific injury is, but Madsen said Omot, a junior who should be able to get this season back as a medical redshirt, will be 100% well before the start of next season.

“He’ll be 100% in two and a half months,” Madsen said.

With Omot sidelined, Cal has been using Rytis Petraitis at the starting power forward spot, with Joshua Ola-Joseph also receiving playing time at that spot. Petraitis is averaging 6.8 points and 4.7 rebounds, while Ola-Joseph is averaging 7.4 points and 4.1 rebounds for Cal, which is 9-9 overall and 2-5 in the ACC heading into Wednesday night’s home game against Florida State.

Omot was a forward this season for Cal, but he was listed as a guard at North Dakota last season.

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