LOS ANGELES -- The decision was made in the afternoon, just a few hours before Thursday night's tip against Oregon, before any plans could be made.
UCLA coach Steve Alford first consulted athletic director Dan Guerrero and senior associate AD Mark Harlan. Soon after, Alford made it official: His two best players, Jordan Adams and Kyle Anderson, would be suspended, just a few hours before one of UCLA's most important Pac-12 games this season.
"I can’t control timing," Alford said after his team's gutty double-overtime loss to Oregon. "If I could control that, I’d give us another 10 seconds on the clock tonight. It is what it is. Timing was what it was. There was a violation of team rules. I thought a suspension was warranted."
Alford didn't go into specifics, explaining that "we keep things internal". He did shed some light, telling reporters that Adams and Anderson were "together on it. It wasn't one or the other."
He also told UCLA fans what they wanted to hear: that the Bruins' top two scorers would be back at practice on Friday and cleared to play in Sunday's game against Oregon State.
But on Thursday night, their absences were clearly felt. For 30 minutes, at least.
UCLA flailed early on without the balance of their two sophomore stars, shooting just 28 percent in the first half. By halftime, defeat seemed like a foregone conclusion. But a miraculous comeback, led in large part by freshmen Bryce Alford and Zach LaVine, certainly helped ease the tension from Adams and Anderson's violations. Otherwise, the pair of star sophomores would've been the story.
Alford, with his 31 points, and David Wear, with his buzzer beater in regulation, made sure that wasn't the case, though. At the podium, after answering one question about his miraculous shot, Wear was asked about Adams and Anderson.
Both players, he said, spoke to the team before Thursday's game.
"They just said, 'Sorry,'" Wear said. "They said they realized they were letting the team down. They felt bad about what happened. But we look forward to them getting back out on the floor with us. We know that they’re great teammates. We couldn’t ask for better teammates."
And in their absence, UCLA couldn't have asked for a more inspiring effort.
"It was a tough deal," Steve Alford said. "You always hate suspending. I do think, them sitting there, they were very good, very supportive of their teammates. ... And their teammates really responded. I don’t think those two could ask their teammates to respond in any better way."
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