Players’ Return All Part of Plan

Against a tide of outside skepticism and despite the coincidental timing of Jelani McCoy’s partial reinstatement, UCLA Athletic Director Peter Dalis on Tuesday shrugged off suggestions that the school compromised its integrity to get the basketball team’s only center back in action as soon as possible.

The 6-foot-10 McCoy returned to practice Tuesday, five days after the Bruins suffered a 41-point loss to North Carolina at the Great Alaska Shootout.

McCoy is not cleared for games, but is expected to return by the end of the month, meaning he probably will not miss any conference games.

Dalis said that, no matter the timing of the reinstatement of either McCoy or Johnson, he knew the school would be accused of rushing them back to win more games.

“That’s precisely what I predicted when we first designed the plan for their possible reinstatement,” Dalis said.

“That’s exactly what I told Steve [Lavin, the UCLA coach] when we were talking about this: The first thing the media will bring up when we reinstate them . . . everybody will assume it’s because of our won-loss record or how we’re playing. That’s what everyone will say, put it in the bank.”

McCoy and senior swingman Kris Johnson were suspended indefinitely Sept. 29 for violation of athletic department and team rules. UCLA has neither confirmed nor denied reports that the two tested positive for marijuana multiple times. Neither Johnson nor McCoy would comment on the specifics of their suspensions.

Johnson was reinstated to practice Nov. 17 and is expected back by the team’s Dec. 13 home opener against Cal State Fullerton.

McCoy, who missed more than a month of practice (which started Oct. 17), will have a month’s worth of team workouts to get in condition for UCLA’s crucial conference opener against Arizona, the defending national champion, on Jan. 3.

Lavin and Dalis said the two players were given goals to meet, but were never told when they might be reinstated for games. Johnson met his goals faster than McCoy, which got him back to practice faster.

“If we were thinking about trying to win games, then we would’ve had Kris and Jelani reinstated earlier,” Lavin said. “If the idea was to try and put our best basketball team together, we would’ve reinstated them earlier and they would’ve been up there in Alaska.

“But that’s not what UCLA is committed to, it’s not what our basketball program is committed to, which is the big picture.”

Dalis said that from the beginning of the two players’ suspensions, there was a loose timetable for their return, depending on their meeting the criteria laid out for them. Dalis said there was no correlation between their reinstatement and the team’s win-loss record or any game on the schedule.

“When you’re talking to the student and his parents, they want to know when they’re going to be able to be back with the basketball family at practice,” Dalis said.

Every two weeks, Dalis said, the players were scheduled to meet with athletic department officials. McCoy and his mother, Bettie, met with Dalis, Lavin and others on Monday, when McCoy was told he had been partially reinstated.

The decision to reinstate both players was based in large part on the athletic department’s belief that the players had accepted responsibility for their mistakes, Dalis said.

“Attitude was extremely important to us,” Dalis said. “It was their willingness to assume responsibility for their actions and to understand the consequences. And that’s what they showed.

“I saw them gain an understanding of their own personal issues. . . . I’ve seen a great improvement in the past week and a half from Jelani. He seems to understand that there are consequences for his actions.”

In early November, ESPN incorrectly reported that UCLA had suspended McCoy for the entire season. Lavin said McCoy’s behavior in the days following the report was a big step in his return.

A source close to the situation said that McCoy suffered a minor setback in his progress about the time of the ESPN report and that that caused a two-week delay in his reinstatement.

“Instead of feeling like a victim, feeling sorry for himself or pouting, what he did instead was just take care of what we set forth in terms of the criteria,” Lavin said.

McCoy, for his part, said he could be physically ready for game action by “tomorrow,” and said he was just glad to have put this controversy at least partly behind him.

“I put myself in this situation,” McCoy said after practice. “UCLA didn’t force me to break the team rules. You’re mad, because you’re off the team, you can’t practice. But after a while you kind of realize that you put yourself in the situation.”

One of the toughest parts of being away from the team, McCoy said, was sitting at his San Diego home on Thanksgiving watching the small Bruin lineup get crunched by North Carolina.

“I consider my teammates my brothers, and it’s kind of like somebody’s picking on your little brother while you’re not there at school,” McCoy said.