UCLA Basketball: Bye Bye Jordan

So much for re-recruiting the current players and incoming freshman!

When asked by ESPN why Jordan Adams changed his mind, Steve Alford said:

"I don't know why," Alford said in a text message to ESPN. "We lose four of five starters."

Maybe that's the problem! Perhaps Alford should speak to football coach Jim Mora regarding how he hung on to Anthony Barr and Brett Hundley, two sure-fire NFL first rounders.

In Athletic Director's announcement of Alford as the new coach of UCLA he said Alford would bring an up tempo style, repair the damaged local Los Angeles pipeline, and in his ensuing defense of the hiring, claimed bringing back the current players as a major accomplishment.

What did that get us? One year from Kyle Anderson, Jordan Adams and Zach Lavine and a barely-meeting-expectations trip to the Sweet 16. A winnable game turned into another loss to Florida.

While some think avoiding a bad loss in the OOC schedule was a good accomplishment for a new coach given the recent history in the program, Alford lost to WSU by 18 in March, to Oregon at home and Stanford on the road in February, and to Utah in January. With the midseason Arizona implosion, we could have actually won the regular season conference championship. Oh, and by the way, Jordan was suspended for that home Oregon loss.

In this post, Bruins Nation explains why being solidly in the beginning to middle of the first round is so important. Second rounders don't get a guaranteed contract, and further, there is a precipitous drop-off in salary from the top to the bottom of the first round per the last Collective Bargaining Agreement.

So what does it mean for the 2014-15 season? Stay-tuned to Bruins Nation for more analysis. But there's no sugar-coating it--this is not good. We lose five of eight rotation players including four starters. Amongst other things, expect more Bryce.

On a more personal level, we wish Jordan all the best. He's given us so many great moments over two seasons right up to hitting the game winner in the PAC-12 championship. Good luck Jordan!