On a gorgeous Wednesday afternoon outside the Morgan Center, a pair of UCLA athletic department interns were engaged in the ironic task of bolstering the Bruins’ famous basketball program at the precise time it was melting down inside the building.
Ben Howland's future at UCLA was tenuous before an article put his leadership under a microscope.
(Getty Images)

While school administrators were conducting a teleconference in reaction to a Sports Illustrated story that made coach Ben Howland look terrible, the interns were handing out blue-and-gold T-shirts to students in advance of UCLA’s Thursday game against Washington. They also were distributing team photos, which were taken before the season.

The seventh player from the left in the photo, wearing a smirk and a long-sleeved T-shirt that covered his voluminous tattoos, was Reeves Nelson.