UCLA guard Jordan Adams' broken foot obviously will affect tonight's championship game of the Pac-12 basketball tournament in Las Vegas. The bigger issue is how the Bruins will deal with Adams' absence in the NCAA Tournament.
Adams had scored 24 points before being injured on the final defensive sequence of Friday's 66-64 semifinal victory over Arizona. For the season, the freshman is UCLA's No. 2 scorer with a 15.3 average.
Another question is whether Adams' injury will hurt the Bruins in the NCAA seeding process. In that sense, how they play without him tonight may have a lot to say about their immediate future after they won the conference's regular-season title.
It's also an important game for Oregon, which staggered into the tournament with losses to Colorado and Utah. The No. 3-seeded Ducks survived an overtime game with Washington in the quarterfinals and then overwhelmed Utah with their defensive effort in a 64-45 victory.
No matter what happens tonight, all the evidence suggests five Pac-12 teams will be in the NCAA field: UCLA, Oregon, California, Arizona and Colorado.
