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Fire Starters

Hmm, it is hard for me to write a post on last night’s game since I didn’t watch it. I don’t write posts on games giving the impression as if I watched the game, when in fact I was sound asleep. But that said, I think this picture tells a lot about what might have taken place at the Cathedral last night:


Photo Credit: AP Photo/Danny Moloshok (ESPN)

Uh, just wow. Coach Howland on his sophomore guard’s night:

Westbrook made nine of 12 shots for 22 points and other aspects of his game pleased Howland.

"I thought he did a good job defensively," Howland said. "He had a lot of deflections. You could see what a difference a year makes."

Howland said he is hopeful Shipp can play Friday. He said it was doubtful Collison would play.
Apparently the other thing RW did really well was to find the freshman, who had a ho hum, double-double for the second game in a row:
It took Westbrook 23 seconds to find the sure hands of freshman center Kevin Love.

That will be a good move for anybody who starts at the point for the second-ranked Bruins this season. […]

Love had 23 points and 10 rebounds -- that's two double-doubles in two games -- plus two assists.

Twice Love nearly dunked his defender through the net along with the basketball and drew approval from many of the Pauley crowd of 6,463 for diving onto the floor for loose balls even if Coach Ben Howland winced as Love got up rubbing a wrist or stretching his neck.

And Love was nine for 12 from the free-throw line.

It was rough Love said. "It was like hack-a-Shaq out there for me," he said.
Also chipping in for double double was Mata Real with 13-13. BBR has all the notes:
Sophomore Nikola Dragovic started in place of the injured Shipp and scored 7 points and showed some good effort on defense and on the boards. Freshman Chace Stanback came off the bench to score 10 points.

With Darren Collison out of the line-up, walk-on Mustafa Abdul-Hamid logged 16 minutes and scored on a deep three-point shot in the first half.

UCLA had a 57-25 halftime lead, with Love leading the Bruins with 17 points and six rebounds in just the first half.

"We had a good first half," Howland said. "We forced a lot of turnovers that gave us a really nice lead."
Also per Painter in the Daily News, DC was in high spirits, without crutches, and jumping up and down cheering for his team-mates. They are expecting back him in about two weeks.

We just need Roll and Keefe continue with their rehab, get healed up, and get ready to join the team sometime by the Pac-10 season (or before).

If you were at the game, please share your take here. I am particularly interested in what you thought about Stanback and Dragovic. The clips bellows are very cool. But I am not going to get excited until I see what these guys can do in real game situations, when they take on credible opponents. So if you guys have more feedback on last night’s game, please share them in the comment thread.

GO BRUINS.