With two big conference games coming up and the possibility of a
matchup against his brother on Thursday, sophomore forward Josh
Shipp is aching to get back on the court this week. It remains to
be seen whether Shipp, who sat out Saturday’s game at USC
with a tear in his right hamstring, will get a chance to play this
week. Shipp went through a 45-minute shoot-around Tuesday morning
and practiced for an hour with the team later that day. His status
for Thursday’s game will be a game-time decision. “I
definitely think I could play.I thought I could have played last
game,” Shipp said. “But I have to go with the advice of
the doctors.” “My thing on his injury is to err on the
side of caution,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said. Shipp’s
brother Jerren is a freshman at Arizona State. He is averaging 7.5
points and 3.4 rebounds in 27 minutes per game. Jerren Shipp lost
his starting job at the beginning of conference play, but has still
averaged over 20 minutes per game for the Sun Devils in his first
season. “I’m just going to follow coach’s
plan,” Shipp said about the possibility of guarding his
brother. “I mean, it’s my little brother, so it’d
be fun to play against him. … I definitely know a lot about him.
We’ll see what happens.”
INTENTIONAL FOUL?: When junior center Lorenzo Mata was fouled
away from the ball with the Bruins up by three points and just 34
seconds to go, it left many wondering if an intentional foul should
have been called. Instead, the referees called a personal foul, and
Mata, a 32.6-percent free-throw shooter on the season, missed both
free throws. After the game, Mata said he thought it should have
been an intentional foul call, and Howland agreed with him. Howland
called Bill McKay, the head of the Pac-10 referees, to discuss the
call and was pleased to find out that McKay had already addressed
the situation with the official who made the call. “If you go
to the rule and you’re fouling a guy purposely away from the
ball, it is an intentional foul,” Howland said. “Our
officials have done a tremendous job, especially this year.
There’s always going to be mistakes. Officials are human
beings. … The tough part is to have mistakes made in the last two
or three minutes,” he said.
MATA’S FOUL SHOOTING: After the USC game on Saturday, the
possibility of the hack-a-Mata strategy being used more regularly
was brought to Mata’s attention, given his poor free-throw
performance so far this season. “If they want to do that,
they can do that,” said Mata. “Once I start hitting
(the free throws), they won’t do it.” Mata shot 150
free throws in the gym on Tuesday morning, during which he paid
special attention to focusing on the rim while not looking at the
ball. The results were encouraging. “He made 119 of 150 this
morning,” Howland said. “Just based on him shooting
79.3 percent in 150 attempts, I think gives you an idea that he can
be a good foul shooter. The way you get confidence is to have lots
of repetition and have success in your repetition.” When
asked if Mata’s problem might be more mental and whether he
might benefit from psychological help, Howland had a simple
response. “I’m the psychologist,” Howland joked.
“Just kidding. … I’m probably the one that needs a
sports psychologist, not Lorenzo.”