Topic: Cole Aldrich

Cole Aldrich (born October 31, 1988) is an American college basketball player from Bloomington, Minnesota. He is currently a Junior at the University of Kansas. Aldrich was selected as a McDonald's All American in 2006. He attended Bloomington Jefferson High School. He is the 2009-10 men's college basketball Academic All-American of the Year as selected by CoSIDA and presented by ESPN the Magazine.

During the 2007-08 season at Kansas, Aldrich's freshman season, his playing time was limited due to playing behind future NBA draft picks Darrell Arthur, Sasha Kaun, and Darnell Jackson. He averaged three rebounds and 2.8 points a game on 8.3 minutes a game during the regular season. Statistically Aldrich's best performance was an 11-point, 11-rebound outing in a win over Texas Tech on March 3, 2008. Probably the most crucial game for Aldrich was during the Final Four game between Kansas and North Carolina on April 5, 2008, when he played only 16 minutes but managed to grab 8 rebounds and score 7 points along with blocking 4 shots while also playing effective defense against National Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough, helping lead Kansas into the NCAA national championship game.

With the departure of the other Jayhawk big men to the NBA draft, Aldrich became the premier big-man going into his sophomore season. Through the first 29 games, he averaged a double-double with 15.1 points and 10.8 rebounds in 29.7 minutes of play. He grabbed a career-high 20 rebounds in an 87-78 win over Oklahoma on February 23, 2009,. On March 8, 2009, Aldrich was named to the 2008-09 Big 12 All-conference first team. On March 22, 2009 Aldrich recorded the first official triple-double in the history of Kansas basketball against Dayton in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Aldrich accumulated 13 points, 20 rebounds, and 10 blocks in a 60-43 victory. . On Monday, April 13, Aldrich announced he will return to KU for his Junior season.