Early Tuesday SbB reported on Twitter that SPORTS ILLUSTRATED planned to publish a story detailing drug use within the UCLA basketball program.
The investigative piece, which SbB has been told recounts marijuana usage by players who have since departed the program, was addressed by UCLA basketball coach Ben Howland at his weekly press conference in Los Angeles today.
Q: Have you heard about the Sports Illustrated article coming out?
A: I know there is an article coming out and I think it’s tomorrow.
Q: Have you been contacted for it?
A: I was contacted last Wednesday or Thursday.
Q: Any idea what the subject of the story is going to be?
A: I can’t speculate.
Q: How do you handle a negative story that has a national interest with recruits?
A: Make the players we’re involved with aware of it and we’ve done that so it’s not coming out without some knowledge of the article.
Q: Do you think there was a period when there was kids in the program who had drug problems?
A: Specifically I can’t talk about any former player or student relative to having anything to do with that. We have a comprehensive drug policy here at UCLA where any time someone fails a random drug test, I’m alerted, the trainer is alerted and the person overseeing the drug policy here. And there is a very good and outstanding program in place for student athletes of all teams to receive education and receive counseling and receive discipline.
Q: When you think back do you think you’ve correctly handled inappropriate behavior by players?
A: With specific players in terms of working with our student athletes, I guess I have to ask you to be more specific.
Q: When a player did something inappropriate, do you think you’ve handled those things correctly?
A: Yeah, I think for the most part, I have.
Q: You said “most part.” Is there something maybe you should have . . .
A: I’d have to go back and look at specifics. You’re speaking in generalities. No one is perfect. I would never claim to be that person. Everybody makes mistakes. I’m definitely not perfect.
SbB has been told the 6,500+ word SI story will be posted to the magazine’s website Wednesday morning.
Sources have also recently indicated to SbB that UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero previously tipped off non-athletic UCLA administrators and major donors to the story by noting that the school has hired a crisis communication firm to help address the situation publicly.
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9:32 pm on February 28th, 2012
What about guys on the team (if any) with a California medical marijuana card? Would it make a difference to UCLA?
9:46 pm on February 28th, 2012
I hope Chace Stanback isn’t in that piece. None of this should even matter, binge drinking that college kids do is much worse than pot.
10:03 pm on February 28th, 2012
3 students in cali smoke pot who cares?
12:41 am on February 29th, 2012
Some dudes smoked weed! The horror…TCU was running a drug ring for christs sake
1:00 am on February 29th, 2012
I know that the Wear brothers and Larry Drew were both heavy cocaine and marijuana users at UNC, and it is why they were asked to leave the team. Reggie Bullock from unc is one of the 5 largest cocaine dealers in central NC and his gang was owed close to 30,000 by the Wear brothers and Drew for unpaid for cocaine, this lead to threats being made against the 3 and thus Roy Williams, a HOF coach, decided to keep Bullock as a then-commit and dismiss the Wears and Drew. It wouldn’t shock me if they ran up further debts in Westwood. I am awaiting the story of Bullock’s gang conspiring with Tyler Zeller to distribute multi kilo shipments of methamphetamine and cocaine through out the midwest, using Zellers Indiana connections his father met while serving a prison term for marijuana distribution to organize the distribution of smaller quantities through out the central midwest. The real problems at UCLA can be linked directly to HOF coach Roy Williams players running a large and somewhat violent drug distribution gang from with in the UNC basetball facility. I have read reports of HOF Coach Roy Williams discovering duffel bags of cash and guns, along with packaged street ready cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine in the UNC mens basketball training room and athletic dorms and only asking that he get a 5% cut of all net proceeds and have plausible deniability should the players ever get in trouble with federal law enforcement, as NC law enforcement does not care to peruse the states most popular semi-pro college team on criminal charges. Many judges and prosecutors in NC went to UNC Law and are prominent boosters so they are willing to let the players run amok as long as the W’s are piling up, but with Duke overtaking UNC in the last three years the heat is rising in NC and the players know it. Hopefully SI will investigate this disturbing matter as well.
3:47 am on February 29th, 2012
Hi guys, I’m sorry for allowing my poor buddy Wallace Martin to post while under the influence. Please excuse his drivel, I sold him the good shit.
4:11 am on February 29th, 2012
Good grief! My dear son, Wallace has certainly flipped his lid on this one. Son, you need to lay off that good shit your drug dealer is selling you.
HOF Roy Williams getting a cut of the net proceeds. WTF!!!
11:11 am on February 29th, 2012
Uncle Sam will look very favorably at the tax cheats SI turns in this year. Calling marijuana a proble.m when most of America is in favor of legalization is propaganda at its best
12:14 pm on February 29th, 2012
You got out of control drug use from that story? I got a team that is trying so hard to appease it’s top players that they have lost control of their complete program.Discipline amongst the players is so lax that they have forgotten respect is earned not demanded.That should go from the top, down.If a player can misbehave and get away with it by threatening to leave,maybe you don’t need that player.Especially if that kind of player drives away your true leaders, who don’t want to be involved with that kind of enviroment.