Just one day after UCLA coach Ben Howland announced that he would almost undoubtedly start Bruin junior Luc Richard Mbah a Moute against Mississippi Valley State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Howland chose to start sophomore James Keefe instead.
“I honestly had planned to start (Luc) today until late last night,” Howland said after the Bruins’ 70-29 win.
Howland realized that UCLA would likely be able to advance without risking any further injury to Mbah a Moute’s left ankle, and Keefe made sure that his coach wouldn’t regret his decision.
From the beginning of the game, Keefe and junior Alfred Aboya, who also played significant minutes in place of the absent Mbah a Moute, made their presence felt on the court.
“I thought we did a lot of good things rebounding-wise,” Howland said. “All of those guys did a very good job of attacking the glass, so we spread it around pretty good.”
The Bruins will need another solid performance from their big men on Saturday against a Texas A&M team which Howland considers to be one of the most physical and impressive on the interior.
Mbah a Moute is expected to start that game, but UCLA will also rely on its depth to help contain the Aggies in hopes of advancing to the West Regional in Phoenix.
“We have our hands full, and we’re going to need all the bigs on our team to perform well on Saturday,” Howland said.
REBOUND, ANYONE?: There was a long stretch in the first half of Thursday evening’s game when the Delta Devils were unable to grab a rebound; Bruins Aboya, Lorenzo Mata-Real, and Love seemed to grab every loose ball.
“We just realized that they were shooting a lot of 3-pointers and we were squeezing under the basket, so in a timeout we talked about being ready for long rebounds,” Aboya said.
The rebounding drought lasted over eight minutes. MVSU was outrebounding UCLA 12-11 before the Bruins grabbed 14 more to take a 25-12 edge.
LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED: Up until the 1:55 mark in the first half, when Kevin Watson nailed a jumper for the Delta Devils, Love was outscoring the entire MVSU team. But Love quickly regained the lead 10 seconds later on the Bruins’ next possession with a 3-pointer to take his point total to 18; MVSU had 15.
Love retained his lead as the two teams headed into the locker room, 18-16.
“I wasn’t actually aware of that,” Love said in the Bruins’ locker room after the game.
HELP PLEASE: With 18:33 remaining in UCLA’s first round victory, the game ball got trapped behind the backboard after a MVSU missed shot. Rather than simply using the end of the mop used to clean the sweat off the court, officials sent UCLA manager Pavan Reddy into the locker room to retrieve another ball to knock the game ball out of its lodged location.
The referee was unable to do so on his first five tries; he then gave Love a chance. After missing on his first attempt, Love was able to dislodge the ball on the second try, receiving an ovation from the predominantly Bruin crowd at the Honda Center.
“The refs kind of gave me a hard time afterwards and asked me if I was trying to show them up,” Love said with a laugh.
DRIBBLERS: Joe Bruin came out after halftime with his jersey on backward and walked back into the locker room after a fan pointed out his mistake, covering himself the whole way in “¦ Love found himself on the other end of an outlet pass during a fast break when Russell Westbrook saw his teammate ahead of the pack “¦ The Bruins’ season-high 13 blocked shots equaled the most ever in a first or second round NCAA Tournament game … UCLA’s 41-point victory margin was its widest in NCAA Tournament play since defeating Wyoming 109-60 in the first round game of the 1967 tournament “¦ The Delta Devils’ 29 points marks the lowest point total since Baylor scored 29 on March 22, 1946, against Oklahoma State in a regional final.