Rush Left UCLA for NCAA ‘Release’

JaRon Rush said Tuesday that he would have spent another year at UCLA to improve his game but that the investigation into dealings with a former summer league coach and an agent, and his subsequent suspension, prompted him to make himself available for the NBA draft.

“I think I just wanted a release from that,” he said.

Rush had previously said he’d considered transferring to get a new start, but announced Monday he would forgo his final two seasons in college and jump to the pros, even if that means the CBA or overseas.

He played only nine games--the first three and the last six--in a sophomore season cut by 24 games because he was found to have accepted money and goods from former AAU coach Myron Piggie and agent Jerome Stanley.

“It was very frustrating,” Rush said. “It was very hard what the NCAA did to me. I felt like I just couldn’t handle it anymore. . . . If it hadn’t happened, I think I would have come back for my junior year.”

Said Bruin guard Earl Watson, a close friend since their days of youth basketball in the Kansas City area: “I think his college career hasn’t been as nice as he thought it could be. There were so many obstacles. It was too much for him. It was too much for me and I was just watching.”

The NCAA will have no jurisdiction over Rush once he hires an agent, which he said he would do within a week, and therefore will have no way to make him pay $6,525 to charity. That is the amount Rush was determined to have accepted in benefits from Piggie, who is in jail and awaiting trial on related charges in an 11-count indictment, and Stanley.

Rush, however, said he is committed to paying the full amount. If he doesn’t, UCLA will not be on the hook for the money, but will get the fallout. In that case, the NCAA will have the right to refuse reinstatement of future Bruins until restitution has been made, since the school would have a bad track record.

“UCLA has put so much into me with the NCAA,” Rush said. “I’m obligated to [pay the fine].”