I mentioned in my thoughts below how watching Love helped soothe the sting of Saturday afternoon. Love was on FSN last night as his Oregon high school team took on a team from MN in the Gatorade Timberwolves Shootout at Target Center. Here is the write up from a St. Paul paper on Love's huge night:
Love scored 41 points as Lake Oswego, Oregon's top-ranked team, defeated Osseo 74-58. He also had 14 rebounds and seven assists. He drew loud applause on a reverse slam in the first half, and in the second half he blocked a shot by Osseo's Zack Peterson, a 7-foot junior center, and had a jaw-dropping behind-the-back pass to a teammate for an easy basket.
"He's something else; he's amazing, actually," Peterson said. "I was looking forward to the matchup. He just lit us up, but it was fun. We started out good, but he is just unstoppable; that's about all I can say."
Love's passing might have been the most impressive. He triggered easy transition baskets with chest passes and baseball passes that whistled three-quarters of the length of the court.
"He's a monster," said Cole Aldrich of Bloomington Jefferson, a close friend of Love's who watched from a few rows up from courtside. "He has, by far, the best outlet pass in the country."
Said Love: "It's hard to have an off day when you are a team-first guy like me. I take pride in passing the ball and doing the little things that help out the team. I am a team-oriented guy, and I will stay that way."
From the same writeup thought these comments from Love's old man - Stan Love (a former Laker BTW) - pretty interesting:
"He's something else; he's amazing, actually," Peterson said. "I was looking forward to the matchup. He just lit us up, but it was fun. We started out good, but he is just unstoppable; that's about all I can say."
Love's passing might have been the most impressive. He triggered easy transition baskets with chest passes and baseball passes that whistled three-quarters of the length of the court.
"He's a monster," said Cole Aldrich of Bloomington Jefferson, a close friend of Love's who watched from a few rows up from courtside. "He has, by far, the best outlet pass in the country."
Said Love: "It's hard to have an off day when you are a team-first guy like me. I take pride in passing the ball and doing the little things that help out the team. I am a team-oriented guy, and I will stay that way."
"This process has been interesting," Stan Love said. "He is a gracious young man, a please-and-thank you kind of kid. I played with Jerry West, and I tell (Kevin) to try and be like him. West was gracious and humble, nice to people. Kevin picked up on that. I've only had to (remind) him once or twice."
No wonder Coach Howland is so excited about this kid. BTW Love had 41 points. But honestly it seemed like he could have had 60. He missed some FTs and was deferring lot of shots to his team-mates. Unlike a typical ballhogg highschooler, he wasn't chucking up ill advised shots to fill up his box score. He was just playing within the flow letting the game come to him. And man those jumpers looked smooth.While I am thoroughly enjoying the current season, after watching this kid last night I will definitely have visions of what those outlet passes to Josh, Luc, DC, Westbrook, Roll, and co. will look next season. Not to mention a legit scoring threat in the paint (along with our current improving bigs) will open up all kinds of shot from outside. Love could be a huge reason AA may just be enticed to come back for one more season. Those are just some of the great off season story lines to follow later this spring. Anyways for now we will get back to think about this season but after watching this kind last night the anticipation for his Westwood arrival has gone up to whole another level.
GO BRUINS.