Josh Shipp keeps saying that he’s got to keep shooting.
His actions aren’t quite living up to his words.
Mired in a shooting slump that has left him 0 for 20 on 3-pointers over his last six games, the redshirt junior forward took just one 3-pointer against Oregon on Saturday, seemingly passing up some open looks that he might normally have shot.
“I think maybe I’ve been thinking about it a little too much,” Shipp said. “Hearing (coach Ben Howland) say guys are running at me, maybe I’ve gotten more conscious of it. I just have to go out there and shoot the ball the way I know how to shoot it.”
Howland had Shipp in the gym Tuesday morning for some extra shooting work.
Shipp took 285 shots and made 200, and Howland feels that it is his fault that Shipp’s shooting slump has stretched as long as it has.
“It’s probably in reality my poor coaching, just not doing enough repetition,” Howland said. “He really shot it well this morning. A lot of it is my not doing a good enough job of getting him in there to get enough shots.”
Shipp has dropped to a .344 percentage from 3-point range this year thanks to his recent slump. Against Arizona State’s zone defense Thursday, 3-point shooting will likely be an important aspect of UCLA’s attack.
LOVE LETHARGIC: Freshman center Kevin Love had a very lethargic start to the first half of Saturday’s game against Oregon, playing listlessly and without fire.
He said that’s something he will need to fight through in the future.
“It was just one of those games where I was out of it,” Love said. “I apologized to my teammates about it. I need to step up and be a man. I still felt bad. We probably could have won the game by more if I was more into it. I think I’ll bounce back from it.”
The bouncing back may have to wait a little bit. Love had stomach cramps Monday night, which he initially thought was food poisoning, but Howland termed a stomach virus.
Love said all he ate was a Subway sandwich without “much on it.”
INJURIES: Sophomore forward Nikola Dragovic strained his groin Monday while shooting. Howland said that he will not practice Tuesday, and likely also not on Wednesday.
As for the ankle sprains, guard Russell Westbrook, despite spraining his ankle Saturday against Oregon, was expected to practice Tuesday. Forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who sprained his ankle against Arizona three weeks ago, is still experiencing soreness in his ankle.
“Russell (had) … a pretty good sprain in the game,” Howland said. “I asked our trainer how he was able to come back out, but he has sprained it so many times. Luc’s first sprain of his career of that magnitude was in that (Arizona) game, but Russell has stretched all those ligaments so many times.”