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Report: LiAngelo Ball, UCLA teammates face house arrest

2017 CIF Southern Section Boys Open Division Championship - Semifinals

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 24: LiAngelo Ball #3 of Chino Hills High School shoots the ball during the game against Mater Dei High School at the Galen Center on February 24, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Josh Lefkowitz/Getty Images)

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LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill could face up to 20 days of house arrest after they were arrested for shoplifting on Tuesday, according to a report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The paper has a reporter on the ground covering the Georgia Tech team, whom UCLA is scheduled to play on Friday night in Shanghai.

The punishment can be served in the hotel where the team stayed while in Hangzhou, the report says, which means that the trip would be forced to stay behind for a few weeks while the rest of the team returns to Los Angeles.

UCLA will play Baylor and one of Wisconsin or Creighton in the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City on the 20th and 21st of this month, and they are scheduled to pay a visit to Ann Arbor to take on Michigan on Dec. 9th. Beyond that, every game that the Bruins play should be winnable even without those three players.

The bigger question, however, is who would stay behind with the players? The program isn’t going to leave three freshmen on their own in a authoritarian state where they have already done something as stupid as trying to shoplift from a Louis Vuitton store in a country where, as 6-foot-10 basketball players, they stand out even more than normal.

The good news, however, is that 20 days of house arrest, no matter how frustrating and how much of an inconvenience, is infinitely better than 3-10 years in a Chinese prison.