Arizona Marvelous Ideas: Arizona basketball recruiting: Bol Bol sets official visit dates

The 7-foot-3 center will be visiting Tucson in late October

The Arizona Wildcats will be hosting five-star center Bol Bol for an official visit on the weekend of Oct. 28, according to Scout.com .

Bol, the son of former NBA player Manute Bol, is the No. 3 player in the 2018 class and the No. 1 center.

The Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) product has not named a preferred list of schools yet, but the 247Sports Crystal Ball projects Arizona as the favorite to land him.

UA’s competition for the big man will be stiff, though, as Bol will officially visit the Oregon Ducks, Kentucky Wildcats, UCLA Bruins, and USC Trojans as well.

Per Scout, Oregon will be Bol’s first visit (Sept. 30), then Bol will visit Kentucky for Big Blue Madness (Oct. 14), then Arizona.

After that, Bol is “tentatively” scheduled to visit USC on the weekend of Nov. 4 and UCLA on the weekend of Nov. 11.

Bol would be an invaluable addition for Arizona since the Wildcats are likely going to lose Dusan Ristic, DeAndre Ayton, Keanu Pinder, and perhaps even Ira Lee after season’s end.

That means Chase Jeter could be UA’s only returning frontcourt player, leaving a void that Bol could fit nicely.

Bol is good friends and AAU teammates with UA commit Shareef O’Neal, which may impact Bol’s final decision.

Here’s how DraftExpress evaluated Bol as a player:

“Widely regarded as one of the top prospects in the high school class of 2019, Bol Bol measured a jaw-dropping 7'3 in shoes, with a 7'8 wingspan, to go along with a 220-pound frame he's added over 15 pounds to since this time last year, and 40 pounds since the summer of 2016. One of the younger players in this group, not turning 18 until November, Bol didn't make the cut for the final U19 roster, as his maturity and ability to maintain a consistently high intensity level aren't yet where they need to be to compete against players nearly two years older than him.

“Nevertheless, from a physical standpoint, Bol already stacks up well with some of the NBA's most notoriously long players, including Rudy Gobert who measured 7'2 in shoes with a 7'8.5 wingspan and a 238-pound frame at age 21 at the 2013 NBA Draft Combine. Like Gobert in his late teens, Bol has plenty of room to improve his frame and polish his game, but his sheer size and elite 9'7 standing reach give him game-changing potential if his mentality improves.”