Mbah a Moute injury update

From Jill Painter of Inside UCLA

Brian Dohn is reporting that Luc Richard Mbah a Moute's left ankle injury is not as bad as originally feared. Mbah a Moute is standing at midcourt, watching the Bruins go through pre-game warmups. Mbah a Moute isn't playing today, but UCLA believes that if he's not ready for the first round of the NCAA Tournament, he would probably be ready for the second game of the tournament. Mbah a Moute said that the boot he's wearing and crutches he's using are just precautionary.

The way it is written, I presume that it comes from UCLA staff and is not based on Mbah a Moute's own assessment of his injury; players can often be overoptimistic, especially someone who is a tough defensive leader.  I think we should keep Mbah a Moute to limited time in the first tournament game against the 16th seed, just to make sure his injury doesn't get reaggravated.

(just filling up space here)

The other positive news is that Keefe has stepped up both yesterday and today, and was critical in our 18-5 advantage in offensive rebounds (which was in turn critical for winning the game).

So with a stronger backcourt, and with Mbah a Moute back in, we should make a solid run into the tournament. I wish Stanford and the other Pac-10 teams (even  USC) the best of luck driving deep into the tournament.

//Note to Nestor: Feel free to incorporate into a larger post-game post and delete this diary. There's not much analysis here; only a copy-paste update.