Slowly and carefully, the UCLA basketball team is returning to full health.
Senior center Lorenzo Mata-Real returned to game action Saturday against Oregon State after suffering a concussion a week earlier against USC, and now junior forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute has returned to practice after suffering his own concussion against the Trojans.
Mbah a Moute complained his head hurt during one of the tests administered before Saturday’s game and thus was held out despite having a more favorable prognosis than Mata-Real prior to the weekend.
“Luc is practicing today,” coach Ben Howland said. “He had a CT yesterday done just for precautionary (reasons). It’s all negative so he worked out for about an hour yesterday, and he felt fine afterward. Hopefully he will have a good result again today.
“Lorenzo obviously played on Saturday, and he should be fine.”
With Mbah a Moute possibly returning this week to game action and Mata-Real back in the fold, the Bruins will be able to extend to a 10-man rotation again, with sophomore forward Nikola Dragovic and freshman forward Chace Stanback not having to play as many crucial minutes as they had to during the games in Oregon.
Mbah a Moute’s return should also improve UCLA’s defense. The long-armed power forward can defend any position on the court with his combination of size and quickness.
“(Our defense) definitely improves,” Howland said. “(Luc’s) one of our best defenders. Having more depth is obviously a huge factor for us, especially on the perimeter.”
OREGON APOLOGIZES: The Oregon athletic director called UCLA on Monday to apologize for the behavior of Oregon fans last Thursday during UCLA’s 80-75 victory. The Oregon fans yelled several vulgarities at native Oregonian and UCLA freshman Kevin Love, who chose to attend UCLA over, among other schools, Oregon. Adding to the inhospitality was the fact that Love’s father, Stan, attended and starred at Oregon.
“(The athletic director) called yesterday,” Howland said. “He called for me, and I wasn’t in. But it was nice of him to do that. But that’s behind us now. We’re not worried about that.”
Oregon coach Ernie Kent also addressed the Oregon students about their behavior prior to Saturday’s game against USC in Eugene.
“Ernie’s a great person,” Howland said. “They’ve already handled it. They’re on it.”
BEST EVER: Love had a dominant weekend, both shooting and on the glass, scoring 42 and pulling down 39 rebounds. Howland had high praise for Love.
“(Love) is the best rebounder that I have ever coached,” Howland said. “We had a kid in his senior year when I was an assistant up at Santa Barbara, Eric McArthur, averaged like 13 rebounds a game. He was second in the country his senior year. If Kevin were to stick around for his senior year I think that he would probably average more than that.”
Love is widely expected to enter his name into the NBA draft following this season.