Mo Ostin already put his name on an on-campus basketball-specific facility, but the famous record mogul’s next UCLA philanthropic venture — the Mo Ostin Academic Center for Student-Athletes — may soon be the most necessary tool for the UCLA men’s basketball program.

Last week’s academic progress rate (APR) scores revealed a continued downward trend that is approaching dire straits. UCLA’s multi-year APR of 933 was not only the lowest in the Pac-12 among men’s basketball teams, but is also just three points above the threshold for penalties.

Teams must have a multi-year APR of 930 to be eligible for any postseason competition, which includes the NCAA Tournament, NIT and CBI. If the Bruins don’t improve their APR — an NCAA-developed metric that awards teams for retaining student-athletes in good academic standing — by next spring when the 2018-19 scores are revealed, they could be at risk for postseason ineligibility for the 2020-21 season. Other possible penalties include reduction in practice and competition time.

“The committee has set the achievement of 930 APR as a requirement for participation in championships, similar to a winning record,” NCAA spokeswoman Michelle Brutlag Hosick wrote in an email. “Unless the postseason ban is waived or avoided through the use of a filter, teams that don’t achieve the 930 will not participate in the postseason from the first time their multi-year APR falls below that benchmark.”

Work to be done

First-year head basketball coach Mick Cronin’s list of things to fix within the downtrodden UCLA program just got longer.

The former Cincinnati head coach, who had five teams with perfect APRs of 1,000 in his 13 years with the Bearcats, must reverse a five-year trend that started in former head coach Steve Alford’s first year, when Alford took over for the 2013-14 academic year.

Since Alford replaced Ben Howland, UCLA’s multi-year APR has fallen each year, from 969 in Howland’s final year to 965 in Alford’s debut, to 962, 950, 944 and then 933 in the 2017-18 academic year. The 11-point drop in the final year is due to an APR of 905 in Alford’s final year, the second-lowest single-year APR in the program’s history.

APRs consider two aspects of academic progress: retention and eligibility. Scholarship student-athletes can earn two points per term toward their team’s APR — one for remaining in school as a full-time student and one for remaining academically eligible. At semester schools, student-athletes can earn up to four points per year.

For a quarter-system school like UCLA, the formula is adjusted to an eight-point scale. Student-athletes are checked each quarter and the results of the final quarter of enrollment — usually the spring quarter — count twice. The total number of points accumulated out of eight is then reduced by half to better line up with the four-point-based semester school APRs.

A team’s total points are divided by points possible and multiplied by 1,000 to determine the team’s APR. Multi-year APRs are not calculated as a four-year rolling average, according to the Committee on Academics operating manual. Instead, it totals the points earned and divides by the points possible for the four-year period in question.

Making points

With a small sample size of only 13 scholarship athletes available on every men’s basketball team, even one point lost can greatly impact the program’s single-year APR. Even if a team earns 25 of the maximum 26 points per term for two straight semesters, it would have an APR of 961 at the end of the year.

The Alford-era Bruins may have suffered APR hits due to former forward Wanaah Bail, who was ruled academically ineligible after the end of the 2014 fall quarter and transferred to Midwestern State, and Jonah Bolden, who was ruled ineligible as a freshman after his move from Australia to Las Vegas to attend Findlay Prep. After his sophomore year, Bolden sacrificed his final two years of eligibility to play professionally overseas.

While it may seem as if early NBA departures automatically damage a team’s APR, the highest single-season score under Alford occurred during the year with the most NBA defections. UCLA’s single-year score of 977 in the 2016-17 academic year, which concluded with Lonzo Ball, TJ Leaf and Ike Anigbogu heading to the NBA draft, was the program’s highest since 2009-10.

As long as prospects leaves school to play professionally under good academic status, they do not cost their team an APR point. They count as “1-for-1” instead of “1-for-2,” according to a change made in 2005.

Players with professional aspirations have increasingly waded into the NBA draft waters, declaring for the draft, interviewing with teams and participating in the NBA combine to later retract their name. For student-athletes on the quarter system, balancing the draft process and spring classes can be difficult. It can be especially harmful for the team’s APR as the spring quarter is often the most heavily weighted quarter in the APR metric. For this reason, it may be beneficial for prospects to not enroll in spring classes if they are committed to the NBA process.

Former UCLA guard Kris Wilkes declared his intention to go to the NBA draft on the first day of spring quarter, therefore likely not affecting UCLA’s APR if he left in good academic standing. Jaylen Hands did so publicly less than a week later, six days after instruction began. It is unclear when Hands and center Moses Brown officially withdrew from school to pursue the draft. The trio of former McDonald’s All-Americans will participate in the NBA Combine this week.

As for football …

The UCLA football team also sank to the bottom of the Pac-12 in APR this year due to a dramatic one-year decline in the first season with head coach Chip Kelly.

UCLA’s 948 multi-year APR for football dropped nearly 20 points with a 2017-18 single-season APR of 881, the lowest in program history after an exodus of transfers. More than two dozen players have left the program since Kelly took over, some due to transfer and others due to medical retirement. Players to leave the team due to medical reasons can remain on scholarship at the school.

Schools can submit a request for an adjustment to minimize the impact of transfers as long as the prospects meet certain requirements. The student-athlete must have earned the eligibility point in the last term of enrollment before transfer, immediately transfer as a full-time student at the next school and have either a 2.6 GPA to enroll at a four-year university or a 3.3 GPA for a junior college.

“The APR numbers for football and men’s basketball in no way reflect the commitment to academic excellence that has always defined UCLA,” the UCLA athletic department said in a statement. “We are disappointed in where our teams currently stand, and are proactively working with our coaches and student-athletes to move in the right direction.”

Prior to Kelly’s first year, the football program had been above 960 for single-year APRs in seven of the past eight years.

When Kelly was promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach at Oregon in 2009, the Ducks also had a drop in single-season APR from 952 to 932, but the number rose steadily through his tenure. By his final year, the Ducks had a 974 single-season APR in 2012-13.