The long list of injured players on the UCLA men’s basketball team just got longer.
Midway through the first half against Yale (1-3) on Friday night, forward Alfred Aboya took an elbow just below the right eye that sent him immediately off the court. Aboya had blurred vision and went to the UCLA Medical Center after the game, where it was determined that he had a fracture of the orbital floor of his right eye.
No. 2 UCLA (6-0) cruised to an easy 81-47 win, but was distracted by the injury.
“It’s a nice win but its obviously tempered by the fact that Alfred got hurt,” coach Ben Howland said. “That’s really my biggest concern right now.”
After talking with the referee, Howland did not think the elbow was intentional, or even a foul, simply an unfortunate occurrence.
Aboya will undergo further evaluation this week to determine the extent of the injury, and for now the length of his absence is still undetermined. He could either miss a substantial amount of time, or be back sooner, but with a protective mask over his face.
“If there’s a lot of displacement, he could be out for as much as a month and a half,” Howland said. “If there’s not displacement and it’s just a fracture, he could get (by) maybe in a mask. But how long he’s out for is all what if, what if, what if. I don’t know.”
The injury comes at a terrible time for the Bruins. Injuries to guards Darren Collison and Michael Roll had pushed Aboya into the starting line-up, and he was one of only eight healthy scholarship players available for UCLA. Aboya had been making big contributions with his aggressive play inside, and was averaging 21.8 minutes a game.
“I feel bad for Alfred,” forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute said. “He plays so hard. Defense, he’s always out there pushing us and everything. He creates a lot of stuff for us. … But Alfred is tough, I know he’ll be back. There’s nothing that can keep him off the court. I just hope it’s not as bad as it looked.”
The Bruins’ Kevin Love also had an injury scare Friday night. Love went down with an ankle injury in the second half. He left the court, but after retaping the ankle, sprinted back on the court to a roar of applause and asked to be put in. Howland said no.
The ankle is one area where Love had been injury free, which is a situation he’d like to see continue.
“I actually ““ knock on wood ““ have never sprained an ankle before, so that was a little something different for me,” Love said. “I just have to keep taping and retaping, and hopefully I’ll be okay.”
On the court, the night belonged to Mbah a Moute, who had a standout performance with 14 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. The night was a big step up offensively for Mbah a Moute, who had previously been averaging 7.2 points per game and 3.0 rebounds per game.
The forward noted that his move from the power forward position to small forward ““ a result of the bigger lineup the Bruins have been using because of the injuries to their guards ““ has taken some adjustment. The move has been further complicated by the fact that Mbah a Moute has continued to play power forward in practice because the Bruins simply don’t have enough healthy bodies.
“It’s hard playing the new position,” Mbah a Moute said. “It’s not new, but I’ve been playing the four for the past few years, now I’m at the three.
“This game I put an emphasis on rebounding and I did a pretty good job.”