McCoy Is Out of Team Picture : He’s Center of Attention for All Wrong Reasons

There are but three words to describe Sunday’s somber, premature departure of a great young athlete from a historic college basketball program.

It’s about time.

A 6-foot-10 broken promise no longer will be brooding on the UCLA bench.

A premonition of dread will be swept from the locker room.

The roster can be written in ink.

Excuse me for not showing more compassion for a 20-year-old who just ruined the opportunity of a lifetime.

But by flunking several drug tests--according to multiple sources--Jelani McCoy certainly didn’t seem to care about himself.

Three years ago, he was plucked from a San Diego high school and given a chance to learn skills that would make him a millionaire.

He repaid everyone’s faith by violating one of the more lenient drug programs in the Pac-10.

Don’t believe the bit about him quitting the team because of “intensive media scrutiny.”

If there was truly intensive media scrutiny, for two months papers would have been printing dozens of stories about drugs. McCoy was never stalked, or challenged, or even asked anything that he did not appear comfortable in answering, even with a no-comment.

No, the guess here is, McCoy quit mostly because he was moments from feeling the toe of some UCLA administrator’s foot or with the prospect of NCAA random drug testing in the postseason right around the corner.

Could it be that counsel finally figured a way to release him without being sued for ruining his NBA career, and McCoy knew it, and grew tired of fighting?

Feel sorry for him if you must, if you are not sick of these drug stories, if your heart truly believes McCoy was too young to know better.

But, then, you must also feel sorry for the people he burned.

Feel sorry for the seniors who have worked hard.

Now, McCoy has taken that away from them.

If he had behaved this season and played hard as in the past two seasons, the Bruins would have made a serious bid for the Final Four.

But from the moment word leaked last month that he was in trouble again, those distractions set in and hopes were gone.

Now, the Bruins will be lucky to win two rounds.

Now, the program has been plunged again into organized chaos, something not seen here since . . . Jim Harrick?

There were plenty of problems under Harrick, but not once did a player quit the team because of drug use.

This is where Steve Lavin stands today, caught in the middle, needing to answer his team’s desperate need for a leader.

McCoy burned Lavin too.

He put the young coach in a situation not faced by many veterans. Although nobody will say it, here’s guessing that the coach was trying to win games and prepare for the tournament while walking a legal tightrope.

Does he play McCoy while the lawyers are debating, not wanting to get into future legal troubles . . . or does he bench him knowing that McCoy will probably not be around for the tournament?

If that was indeed the situation, Lavin wound up doing both. It was awkward, uncomfortable, and at times he stumbled.

The coach’s credibility with the community took a hit when he repeatedly claimed that the center was being benched for basketball, not personal, reasons.

The truth finally came out at the news conference Sunday.

One day after not playing McCoy for the final 12:45 in a close game against Cal--again for alleged basketball reasons--he said McCoy could have a “10-year career in the NBA.”

Lavin also didn’t help himself much by saying that he had not spoken to McCoy when the kid quit and, in fact, did not even know his new phone number.

If UCLA’s lawyers are telling Lavin to talk like that, his lawyers need to cut the rope on their dangling coach and admit it.

If Lavin is doing his own spin control, he needs to stop, now.

He needs to hold a team meeting, clear the air of questions about McCoy and the university’s policies and just why in the heck did the center hang around so long after messing up so badly?

Without discussing McCoy’s case, Lavin needs to explain to his players just which rules apply to everyone, and which ones don’t, and why not.

Then Lavin needs to start playing his freshmen. Not that he has a choice anymore, what with the rotation down to five people.

He must give good minutes to Travis Reed, Billy Knight, Rico Hines. He must remember what endeared him so much to the university in the first place, his ability to see beyond the next game, to understand the big picture.

Which is this: Jelani McCoy is gone. And it is his loss.