Yale starting point guard and star of last season’s historic NCAA tournament run, Makai Mason will miss the entire 2016-17 season with a foot injury.
Mason was injured in a scrimmage this weekend and will need to undergo surgery to repair his foot. It’s unclear at this point whether Mason will withdraw from Yale to preserve the year of eligibility.
The news is a crushing blow to James Jones’ Bulldogs who will kickoff their title defense this coming weekend at Washington.
The injury was first reported by Erik Dobratz of News 8 in New Haven.
If Mason does not withdraw from school this semester, the junior will lose a year of eligibility at the program, per Ivy League rules. If he does withdraw this semester, he can return for fall 2017. If he decides to stay in school, then he would graduate in spring 2018 and have a year of eligibility as a graduate transfer.
This has happened to Columbia (Rosenberg), Harvard (Chambers), and Princeton (Brase) in the recent past. All three of those teams rebounded pretty well and I hope the Bulldogs will overcome this blow. The League will miss a likely POY performer, a true 100% effort guy all the time. Get well and get back, Mr. Mason.