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When the 12th seeded College of Charleston Cougars tip things off against five-seed San Diego State Thursday afternoon at 3:10 p.m. ET, they will be led by a seventh-year senior guard named Dalton Bolon.
The Cougars, who went 31-3 and won the Colonial Athletic Association tournament to make it into the NCAA Tournament, attempts 30.2 three-point attempts per game (second in the country behind Cornell).
One of the players who contributes greatly to that number is the man his teammates call “Psycho D.”
Dalton Bolon led the Cougars in scoring this season, averaging 12.3 points per game while taking about a sixth of those three-point attempts (5.4 per game).
Thursday’s March Madness game will be the 155th game of his Bolon’s college basketball career.
“They just call me ‘Old Man,'” Fox News reports Bolon said before the tournament. “They say I’m like 30. Really? I’m young for my age.”
His teammates also mock for what they call his “dad shoes,” the kicks he wears to help his sore foot.
“I don’t care what anybody says,” Bolon said. “They see grandpas wearing these things. Like, grandpas are the smartest people on the earth. I don’t know why people don’t take their advice more often. These are so comfortable.”
So how does one manage to become a seventh-year senior and still have college basketball eligibility?
Well, for the first five years of Dalton Bolon’s college basketball career he played at Division II West Liberty.
He then transferred to the College of Charleston where he is finishing up his second season with the Cougars.
Bolon owes his longevity in college basketball to being redshirted twice and earning an extra year of eligibility because of the pandemic.
He says that he is hoping that he isn’t done playing college basketball after Thursday’s game.
“Looking for an eighth (year),” Bolon said on Wednesday. “If there’s a way I can get an eighth, if you people could tell me how, that would be great.”
The San Diego State Aztecs are favored by five or five-and-a-half points, depending on where you wager. The game can be seen on truTV.