Feet slipping and sliding, handle going awry, shot struggling to hit the bottom of the net, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute returned to the court on Saturday.
The junior power forward, out since the semifinals of the Pac-10 tournament with a sprained ankle, returned to the starting lineup to play 32 minutes against Texas A&M on Saturday.
If the game was any indication, Mbah a Moute will have to make good use of the practice time leading up to next Thursday’s regional semifinal in Phoenix. He committed seven turnovers, many on traveling calls, shot 1-for-4 from the field and had four personal fouls.
In the locker room after the game, the junior said he thought he was “rusty."
“It was hard,” Mbah a Moute said. “I felt a little rusty out there. I haven’t played in a week and a half.”
Even with his struggles, however, Mbah a Moute found a way to contribute, hitting the boards for eight rebounds, including some key ones down the stretch as the Bruins made their run to get back into the game.
“I mean, that’s something I pride myself on doing,” said Mbah a Moute, who averages nearly six rebounds a game. “Again, tonight, my team needed me to step up, especially on the defensive end. I’m just happy I was able to do that.”
If nothing else, the game was encouraging for the Bruins simply because Mbah a Moute proved he could stay on the court for extended minutes. Though after the game he was icing both of his ankles as well as his knees, he said that he was mostly fine.
HOME CROWD?: A mantra for the Bruins the entire season has been the importance of staying close to home for the NCAA Tournament.
Saturday proved why that is so important.
The staunchly pro-UCLA crowd in Anaheim helped will the Bruins back into the game when they fell behind by 10 in the second half. The Bruins also possibly benefited from fans of fellow Pac-10 school Stanford, who stayed and even seemed to be performing 8-claps. Stanford defeated Marquette at the Honda Center earlier in the day.
Lorenzo Mata-Real said the crowd was probably as loud as any he’s heard in Pauley Pavilion, and though coach Ben Howland felt that the Bruins would have won the game even on a neutral court, sophomore forward James Keefe was not so sure.
“We worked so hard in the regular season to get a No. 1 seed so we could be in Anaheim,” Keefe said. “This is why we did this. To make our run, which we needed to do “¦ it was a big part.
“It’s hard to say (whether we would have won on a neutral court). Obviously, to win the game, we had to make a run, and I don’t know if we would have been able to make our run without that crowd.”
BLOCK PARTY: UCLA has now gone two consecutive games with double digit block totals. In the first round game against Mississippi Valley State, the Bruins had 13 blocks playing against a mostly undersized team. On Saturday, the Bruins had another 11 blocks, which was very surprising against the large Aggie front line. UCLA center Kevin Love had seven blocks on his own, all in the second half, including two in a sequence on the Aggies’ 7-foot center DeAndre Jordan.
Howland was surprised and impressed by that total when glancing at the box score during the postgame press conference.
“One thing that just popped out at me as I was looking at the stat sheet here “¦ (seven) blocked shots by Kevin today,” Howland said. “He almost had a triple-double with rebounds, points and blocks. Now he is not known as a shot blocker, per se, but that’s pretty incredible.
“(Seven) blocked shots is big time.”
DRIBBLERS: Both school’s dance teams performed to “Apple Bottom Jeans” by T-Pain during halftime. Various members of the media agreed that UCLA’s performance was better “¦ USC’s women’s soccer team, which won the College Cup this year, was introduced at halftime of the Stanford-Marquette game. The largely UCLA and Stanford crowd greeted them with hearty boos, and one chant of "UC-LA" … Even in the midst of UCLA’s drought versus Texas A&M, the crowd cheered every time Duke’s loss to West Virginia was announced over the PA system.