The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Magnum Rolle will be one of several players honoured by the Louisiana State University Tigers’ men’s basketball programme for their Final Four run in the 2006 NCAA Tournament.

In his true freshman season, Rolle was a member of the team that surprised many pundits when they advanced to the Final Four where they were eventually eliminated by the UCLA Bruins.

Against UCLA, Rolle led the Tigers with a team high eight rebounds in just 14 minutes off the bench. Rolle’s 2006 team - which also included future NBA pros Glen Davis, Tyrus Thomas, Garett Temple and Chris Johnson - will receive recognition at halftime when the Tigers host the Florida Gators on February 9 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Rolle played locally for the St George’s Jaguars before he left The Bahamas for Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina.

He became a five-star prospect and signed with LSU. In his first collegiate season he played in 33 of the 36 games averaging 2.2 points per game and 2.5 rebounds a contest in 8.7 minutes a game. He had 21 blocks in his freshman season and hit 46.2 percent of his field-goal attempts.

As a sophomore he started a total of nine games his sophomore season, averaging almost 16.7 minutes per contest.

He averaged 4.0 points per game, 4.1 rebounds per game, hitting 43.1 percent of field-goal attempts with 31 blocks.

Following that season, he transferred to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs where he completed his NCAA career.

As a junior, he averaged 12.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per contest. He was named to the All-WAC Newcomer and All-WAC Defensive teams.

As a senior he was named to the Lefty Driesell all-America Defensive Team, earned all-district second team honours by the NABC, all-WAC Second Team, all-WAC Defensive Team, all-Louisiana Second Team and Netscouts Basketball WAC Player of the Week once.

He finished second on the team in scoring at 13.9 points and first in rebounds at 8.4 rebounds and also led the conference in blocks at 2.1 per game. At the 2010 NBA Draft, Rolle was chosen with the 51st overall pick by the Oklahoma City Thunder. His rights were traded to the Pacers for Ryan Reid, who was the 57th overall pick.

Rolle was the first Grand Bahamian drafted to the National Basketball Association.

As a member of the Nakorn Phantom Mad Goats, Rolle was named the Most Valuable Player of the Thailand Basketball League in 2016.

At the national team level, Rolle was an integral member of the Bahamas’ gold-medal winning CBC championship team in July 2014.

For the tournament, he averaged 13.8 points, seven rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game. He joined the team once again the following summer when they finished with a silver medal.