Report: UCLA’s McCoy Will Not Be Reinstated

Days after telling his father that he expected to be reinstated onto the UCLA basketball team by mid-December, Jelani McCoy’s future was tossed into deeper uncertainty.

School officials on Monday would neither confirm nor deny an ESPN report that UCLA had decided not to reinstate McCoy this season.

McCoy, a junior center, was suspended indefinitely along with Kris Johnson on Sept. 29 for violation of athletic department policy and team rules.

The school, citing privacy issues, would not comment on a report at the time of the suspensions that each player tested positive for marijuana use in athletic department drug tests three separate times.

Monday, Coach Steve Lavin did not have much to say about the ESPN story.

“Just the same thing, they’re still indefinitely suspended,” Lavin said Monday night when asked if the report was true. Lavin added that both players’ situations are “to be determined at a later date.”

Said senior guard Toby Bailey: “I don’t know about it. I hope it’s not true.”

Last week, Lavin said he had “guarded optimism” about the way both McCoy and Johnson were approaching their suspensions.

Monday, Lavin said he would not revise that opinion.

“Guarded optimism? Yeah, that would still be accurate,” Lavin said.

From the beginning of the suspensions, Lavin would not set a timetable or even say concretely whether they would return to the team, although McCoy apparently had been told that he would be back by the team’s fifth game--which also marked the end of Fall quarter.

Neither has practiced with the team or participated in team functions, but both, Johnson especially, have worked out individually with team managers and in pick-up games with their teammates.

A UCLA spokesman confirmed Monday that Johnson and McCoy remain on scholarship and are still living on campus, and, according to a source, McCoy is still residing in his dorm room.

Fred McCoy, Jelani’s father, said that he had a telephone conversation with his son over the weekend in which Jelani expressed optimism about his rejoining the team.

“I talked to Jelani Saturday, and he said everything looked like it was on track, everything seemed fine,” said Fred McCoy, who had not been able to reach his son after the ESPN report Monday. “He was going to get back on the team.

“If something like that had happened, I would expect to get a call, and I haven’t. In fact, he told me that his first game back was going to be the 13th of December.”

If true, the loss of McCoy, the only center listed on UCLA’s roster, would be a devastating loss for a team that had national-title hopes. Among non-suspended players, only the 6-foot-9 J.R. Henderson is taller than 6-6.

The 6-9 McCoy started 28 of 32 games, averaging 10.9 points and 6.5 rebounds as a sophomore last year. He led the conference with a 75.6% shooting percentage, and blocked 61 shots.

Meanwhile, Sabrina Sheran, Johnson’s mother, said she is certain that her son will do everything he can to make sure he is reinstated. Sheran also insisted that her son was far from an unruly troublemaker.