They’re in a Rush to Leave

Call ‘em Jerome Moiso-Long and JaRon Rush Outtahere.

At this point it’s not even a big deal when players leave school early. That goes for everyone, everywhere. Even at UCLA.

If players can check out prematurely on Mike Krzyzewksi, as they did on Dean Smith and John Thompson in their latter years, they can step away from Steve Lavin.

Don’t make these twin takeoffs a reflection of Lavin. They’re a reflection of the times. But if UCLA players don’t show an ability to develop and fare well in the NBA, that will come back on him.

It’s not when they go to the pros, it’s how they fare once they get there. The ultimate testament to Dean Smith isn’t that Michael Jordan went on to dominate the league, it’s that guys such as Joe Wolf still manage to linger around the NBA. That shows that somewhere along the line, they picked up some knowledge of the fundamentals of the game that allowed them to outlast more talented players.

Will Jerome Moiso and JaRon Rush be able to adapt? That’s the key question, because both will have to change their games to last in the NBA.

The 6-foot-10 Moiso is so thin, fans sitting behind the basket support won’t be able to see him.

Can Moiso even be as good as Antawn Jamison, another guy who relied on foot speed and angles in college and took about a year and a half to get going in the NBA before he was injured right before the All-Star break.

Can Rush extend his shooting range enough to become a three-point threat. Because he won’t be spending much time inside as long as guys like Shaquille O’Neal are around. At 6-7, he’ll have to attack and defend against guys like Latrell Sprewell, and after watching Sprewell lock up Vince Carter in the playoffs, that, right there, could be enough to scare Rush into staying. Actually, both of them would be well advised to watch the first-round series between the Lakers and the Sacramento Kings.

Remember Corliss Williamson? The most outstanding player of the NCAA Final Four in 1994? Led Arkansas to the championship that year and another berth in the national final in 1995? Went by “the Big Nasty,” had a pet snake?

He’s an afterthought in this series, playing 16 minutes a game for the Kings, averaging six points, usually the fifth option on offense. And he made much more of an impact at the NCAA level than Moiso or Rush.

Baron Davis was a better college player than either of them too, and he can’t even take David Wesley’s minutes away in Charlotte.

There are some financial issues hanging over the departure of Rush--who played only nine games last season because of NCAA suspensions--and quite possibly serving as the primary factor for it. The NCAA, in reinstating Rush, fined him $6,125 for taking money from Myron Piggie, his summer league coach in Kansas City, Mo. If the money--it will go to charity--isn’t paid, UCLA will be penalized.

According to evidence in the federal court case against Piggie, he gave Rush $17,000.

The NCAA members really need to ask themselves if it’s worse for players to take cash from agents or boosters and stay in college, or for them to leave because they want or need money.

If the NCAA rules and restrictions brought about the early defection of a player and the weakening of one of the sport’s marquee programs, have they really served their purpose?

Meanwhile, UCLA’s trip to the Sweet 16 in March is looking less like a nice save to a season that was almost jettisoned and more like a missed opportunity to run deep into the NCAA tournament. It’s doubtful that the Bruins will have such a talented core for a couple of seasons, and this group, like the Baron Davis-led squad before it, didn’t make any magic happen.

Lavin’s tenure at UCLA has been marked by the program’s ability to recover. The Bruins bounce back from blowout losses, from losing streaks, from the loss of players.

But no matter how much the coaches make, no matter how much they are held responsible, the state of a college basketball team will always be determined by the talent of its players.

Even the supposedly scrappy, underdog schools have players. This NBA season showed us that Utah’s trip to the Final Four a couple of years ago was no fluke. When the Utes beat Arizona in the West Regional final in 1998, would anyone have predicted that Andre Miller and Michael Doleac would make bigger waves in the 1999-2000 season than Mike Bibby and Miles Simon?

Lavin can’t win as regards Moiso and Rush. If they turn out to be good pros, people will wonder why he couldn’t get to the Final Four or at least the Elite Eight with them. If they fail, they’ll wonder if he did enough to add to their games.

Now that players are demonstrating colleges are only brief stops on the road to the pros, they will be looking for coaches who can give them the most help in the short time they stay there. Or coaches with strong NBA ties who can get an out-of-work player a tryout or a 10-day contract.

It isn’t coaching anymore. It’s job placement.

And Lavin’s work has just begun.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com