NCAA Ruling Hits Rush and Bruins Hard

So another blue chip turns red and rolls off the table, landing at the feet of a bleeding UCLA basketball program that can no longer bluff.

The point is not that what amounted to a 1 1/2-season suspension of Bruin forward JaRon Rush by the NCAA Tuesday was wrong.

Of course it was wrong.

Everything the NCAA does with regard to money and athletes is wrong.

Rush is suspended for taking $200 from an agent by an organization that recently used his name, and others like it, to cut a $6-billion TV deal?

Rush is suspended for accepting $6,125 in summer-league benefits while his coach is on the radio selling sports cars?

Rush is penalized for taking less money than the NCAA makes off his back in one day?

The NCAA is almost criminal in its exploitation of student athletes.

So what. That’s as obvious as the constantly growing nose on its face.

The point is, how do you deal with it?

The rules stink, but they are the rules, so how do you treat them?

Do you suddenly slow down and drive 45 mph through the two blocks of that deserted little town?

Or do you ignore the sign, figure nobody’s watching, and fly through at 70?

In the case of JaRon Rush, the Bruins flew through at 70.

They knew the rules, they saw the signs, they heard the whispers loud enough to ring ears from Kansas City to Los Angeles.

Yet they recruited Rush anyway.

They took a chance.

And they got burned.

Which leads to another point.

Since when does UCLA have to take chances?

If it is later learned that a player committed a serious infraction before he entered college--the $6,125 part--that means he probably came from a troubled or shady situation.

When that player is finally caught, shouldn’t he currently be playing for a school that has not won 11 national championships?

There are plenty of schools desperate enough to take a chance on somebody like JaRon Rush. Since when is UCLA one of them?

Here’s hoping JaRon Rush will still have a great future, and that he’ll stick around campus during his suspension to ensure that.

But he never should have been here.

While in high school, Rush played for the most controversial Amateur Athletic Union traveling team in the country.

Every move made by the team and its coach, the now-infamous Myron Piggie, had been followed not only by recruiters, agents and scouts, but apparently also by the the federal government.

And UCLA’s renowned streetwise coaches never had a whiff of some of the stuff Rush was receiving from that team?

They say they didn’t. Even so, there were other signs.

Perhaps one would have been when Rush reneged on an oral commitment to attend Kansas because Jayhawk Coach Roy Williams wouldn’t promise to immediately start him.

Williams then said he was glad to get rid of Rush, just before UCLA welcomed him with open arms and put him at the top of a 1998 recruiting class that was rated best in the nation.

Now he’s the latest member of that class to struggle.

Matt Barnes missed the first part of the season because of academic problems and has yet to find himself.

Dan Gadzuric has missed time because of injuries, but, even when sound, has yet to approach his high school hype.

Ray Young has experienced the same highs and lows enjoyed by his rainbow jump shot.

Only Jerome Moiso has started playing to expectations, just in time for him to leave school early for the NBA as the sort of 6-foot-10 shooter that everyone covets.

And now the 1998 class valedictorian is gone. And for something he did before he ever showed up.

Leaving a hole that could have been filled before it ever became hole.

While the Bruins won’t miss Rush’s distractions, they will miss his rebounding. They will miss his spark.

He was the one guy who could have done what Baron Davis did last year, yank them out of losses at the last minute, save them in Seattle, kick them around the Oregon court before Sean Farnham did it in the locker room.

The mercurial Bruins don’t have anybody who can do that anymore. They miss it. They miss it so much, they might end up missing the NCAA tournament.

And now we’ll spend the next couple of months hearing talk about fairness.

Is what happened Tuesday fair to JaRon Rush? No.

Is what happened fair to his teammates and their chances for the next two seasons? No.

But a bigger question is, what has happened to this program in the last couple of years, culminating with these recent dreadful months, fair to UCLA’s image, its tradition, its fans?

The answer would be the same.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.