Ben Ball News & Notes

by Nestor on Jan 29, 2008 4:54 AM PST in Basketball

Let’s start with our (fresh)man in the middle. Kevin Love was named player of the week:

UCLA center Kevin Love has been named the U.S. Bank Pacific-10 Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week for Jan. 21 - 27, Commissioner Tom Hansen announced today.

Love, a freshman from Lake Oswego, Ore., led the Bruins to two road wins last week at Oregon and Oregon State. In the 80-75 win against the Ducks, Love scored 26 points and broke his own UCLA record with 18 rebounds. He made 8-of-11 (.727) shots from the field, including both three-pointers he attempted. At Oregon State, Love scored 16 points and improved his total rebounding record to 21, becoming the first Bruin to record more than 20 rebounds in a game in more than 30 years. The Bruins went on to defeat the Beavers 85-62.

In the games last week, Love recorded his 10th and 11th double-doubles of the year and averaged 21.0 points and 19.5 rebounds per game. He also shot 63.6 percent (14-for-22) from the field and 50.0 (2-for-4) from three-point range.

This is the third weekly honor for Love and UCLA's 48th Player of the Week all-time.

Would have been cool if Pac-10 made both KL and DC co player of the week. Oh well.

For their efforts Bruins jumped up to number 5 in both polls.

Elsewhere some encouraging notes re. the health of LM, LRMAM, and MR in the Daily Bruin:

With 12:05 to go in the first half, UCLA center Lorenzo Mata-Real checked into the Bruins’ game against Oregon State.

Mata-Real had been out since the USC game on Jan. 19 with a concussion, and although he was projected as doubtful for the entire road trip, he managed to suit up and contribute five points and five rebounds.

He also threw down a couple of dunks that helped to contribute to the eerie silence of the Oregon State crowd.

"It felt really good to play," Mata-Real said. "I worked on (those dunks) a little in warm-ups."

With Mata-Real healthy, forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (out with a concussion) improving enough to participate in pregame warm-ups before Saturday’s game, and guard Mike Roll expected to be out just another two weeks, the Bruins could finally be approaching full health again.

Let’s hope Luc can return this week. We are not going to hold our breath and hope for Roll to rush back. But if he can make a return by the next road trip it would be a huge boost for our warriors. As I have said before MR impacts the team in many positive ways. He can knock down clutch shots (again watch the game against Pitt last year), hold his own on D, get his team-mates involved, and more importantly stabilize our rotation, which has a net positive effect on the entire ream. His return will be a big boost for the team. Hope he heals up and can come back when he is ready.

GO BRUINS.

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Comments

I'm almost 100% positive ...

Roll is going to redshirt.

Go Bruins

by Achilles on Jan 29, 2008 11:59 AM PST reply actions

Why

He's slated to be ready in 2-3 weeks. That's enough time for him to get into game shape and make meaningful contributions during the tournaments.

by Raisin on Jan 29, 2008 4:46 PM PST up reply actions

how do you know that?

i hope he doesn't. we need a guard on the bench, right now we don't really have one (i know sometimes westbrook starts on the bench but he plays 35 minutes). if there is a game in the tournament where we have some foul trouble or an injury, could mess up an entire season's efforts. all for what, so we can have mike roll as a fifth year in 2009-2010, backing up malcolm lee and jerime anderson.

by stephons on Jan 29, 2008 12:02 PM PST reply actions

absolutely agree

We need Michael back as soon as we can get him. Westbrook, at least on the Oregon trip, looked tired for the first time all season. His minutes are only going to increase, so we need some extra guard play as soon as possible.

by Free the 16 on Jan 29, 2008 12:32 PM PST up reply actions

I guess...

maybe for the sake of depth alone. but roll really hasn't done much anyway. he's spotty. he needs to get his mind right, and body right, find his shot. at this point i'd rather have an inexperienced stanback gettign more rep out there than roll coming off injury. roll's outside threat has been missing since always...

Across The Face

by rb bruin on Jan 29, 2008 5:38 PM PST reply actions

Apology from Oregon AD

On the general subject of Ben Ball, this looked interesting:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3221255

The Oregon AD is apologizing for the treatment of Love last week. Nice gesture, and very appreciated as far as I'm concerned. College kids can get a bit out of hand, and I think this was the proper thing to do. Thanks Mr. Kilkenny-

by Durant on Jan 29, 2008 6:20 PM PST reply actions

Cnnsi is reporting it too

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/basketball/ncaa/01/29/oregon.apology.ap/index.html

Classy move, but not as classy as K-love walking off without a word, with the big W.

by Crispyoc on Jan 29, 2008 6:31 PM PST up reply actions

MR

Is a doubtful contributor. He has been inconsistent with three point shooting and does not compare to Shipp or especially Westbrook defensively. It will be unlikely that he will come back shooting a higher percentage from three than he did before his recent injury (.286.)That being said, I love his attitude and effort and would love to be wrong.

by 75NatChamps on Jan 29, 2008 6:36 PM PST reply actions

Intangibles

You guys are quick to come down on Mike, but somehow it is Ben Howland who has the utmost confidence in him and who desperately would love to have him back in the rotation. You have to remember that a lot of BH's players don't really "get it" until their sophomore or junior year. I think Mike would have been solid this year if he hadn't been hurt, in fact I'm pretty sure of it. He has worked hard this offseason and if BH wants him back there has to be a good reason for it. Quit kicking our players while they're down.

by tasser10 on Jan 30, 2008 9:08 AM PST up reply actions

MR ...

I didn't come down on Mike Roll at all.

I just think he'll redshirt because he's injured.

Go Bruins

by Achilles on Jan 30, 2008 9:49 AM PST up reply actions

I know you didn't A

I was refering to other comments above. Some people expect every single one of our players to be AA-caliber. And by that I mean Arron Afflalo AND All American. I think he'll redshirt as well and he could be huge for us next year.

by tasser10 on Jan 30, 2008 12:44 PM PST up reply actions

Cool ...

cool

Go Bruins

by Achilles on Jan 30, 2008 3:27 PM PST up reply actions

Still awesome..

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http://www.vcao.net

by danielbank on Jan 29, 2008 10:05 PM PST reply actions

intangibles

i don't think anyone was "kicking him while he was down." any criticism of mr i think was based on observable facts. to that, what evidence is there that howland "desperately wants him back"? all i was saying is that if he does redshirt, it wouldn't be much of a loss. his vaunted shot has been off and he's slow to rotate over on defense and gets 3's shot in his face. if it takes a redshirt for him to "get it", as you say, i'd rather that happen. and as far as intangibles, you don't get the intangibles defense for mr. you get intangibles for mata, for aboya, for luc... he was a highly touted recruit, come on now.

Across The Face

by rb bruin on Jan 30, 2008 10:16 AM PST reply actions