Obviously it's important to have adequate oil delivery to bearings, and to have proper clearance which will vary depending on the engine and type of usage.

One thing that is often overlooked is the bore of the rod must be round, straight, and sized properly. It's about as important as round and true crank journals and round and straight cylinders. When the bearings are encapsulated in the assembled rod, if the bearing shells are not evenly and tightly contacting the rod bore they can walk around, and they also heat up significantly more because the poor contact between the bearings and rod doesn't transfer heat away from the bearing very well. The bearing shell is then prone to distort from excess heat and lack of support, which usually reduces the oil clearance, which is the beginning of the end.

That may not be what caused your problem, but it's very possible it was. If bearing to journal clearances are on the tight side that's 2 strikes. A lot of rods are honed with methods that are "iffy" and when not done correctly make the bearing bore bell-mouthed. I always inspect and measure the rod bores. On engines that have some run time on them you can look at the contact surfaces on the back of the bearing shells and the bores and see how well they fit.