The Bruin basketball team has lost eight of its last nine games
and now, it has lost one of its players to injury.
Junior forward Josiah Johnson sustained a sprained left medial
collateral ligament and a bone bruise in practice on Monday,
according to MRI results released Tuesday morning.
Johnson, who has averaged 8.8 minutes per game this season, will
not be available for this week’s games against Cal and
Stanford, according to coach Ben Howland.
Junior guard Brian Morrison also continues to be hampered by
injuries. He returned to action earlier than anticipated, but he
put up his worst performance of the season against Arizona on
Saturday, fouling out and failing to score a point.
“I’m not sure if it’s his hamstring or his
ankle, but he’s not 100 percent,” Howland said.
Morrison, who continues to wear a walking boot when he is not
practicing or playing, has played less fundamental basketball due
to lack of practice time, Howland added.
Meanwhile, freshman forward Matt McKinney, who has yet to suit
up this season due to a broken left foot, participated in his first
partial practice Tuesday.
ON THE REBOUND: The Bruins are 0-8 when they
are outrebounded by their opponent, so it doesn’t help that
Cal forward Leon Powe, the Pac-10’s leading rebounder at 9.6
per game, is coming to Westwood on Thursday.
Powe dominated on the glass in Cal’s win over UCLA last
month, pulling down 14 rebounds and scoring 19 points as well.
“We’re going to have to frustrate him any way we
can,” UCLA guard Cedric Bozeman said.
Howland hasn’t had much success getting his players to
rebound lately, so he is trying to give them a new way to think
about it.
“I told (center) Ryan Hollins, “˜I always want you to
know how many rebounds you have at the end of the game.’
“I want him to be selfish about rebounds.”
ARIZONA ACCOLADE: Arizona guard Salim
Stoudamire was named Pac-10 Player of the Week after scoring a
career-high 34 points on 12-for-17 shooting against UCLA on
Saturday.
Stoudamire scored 22 against USC on Thursday.