The day has finally come, the moment hundreds of thousands of Bruin fans have been waiting for.
But there is one person who has been waiting even longer for this moment: Kevin Love.
The No. 2 UCLA men’s basketball team will finally take the floor in a meaningful game with the help of Love, coach Ben Howland’s top recruit.
“I’m definitely excited to finally play and be a part of this team,” Love said. “I’ve been waiting for this day for a while now.”
When the Bruins open up the regular season at home tonight in Pauley Pavilion against Portland State, however, the lineup will be heavily depleted, as starting point guard Darren Collison and sharp-shooter Michael Roll are currently sidelined due to injuries.
While Collison may be back in time for Monday’s CBE Classic opener, UCLA will have to play without Roll for about a month, which means that sophomore Nikola Dragovic and freshman Chace Stanback will be seeing more minutes than usual.
“We’re going to be short-handed, but I still have a lot of confidence with this team,” sophomore guard Russell Westbrook said.
There’s always a reason Howland schedules non-conference games against the teams that he does, and Portland State fits into that increasingly prominent trend.
Howland was able to list a series of reasons for having his squad go up against a team such as the Vikings.
“They won 19 games last year; they have the bulk of that team back this year, (and) they’re a senior-oriented team,” he said. “I thought they’d provide us with a pretty good first test out of the box.”
The Vikings, coming off of a 19-13 season that saw them finish fourth in the Big Sky Conference, pose some potential threats for the Bruins.
With Love and Westbrook ““ who is taking over in place of the injured Collison ““ both starting, the Bruins will be showing a young squad against what Howland considers to be a veteran team.
One of the Portland State veterans, Scott Morrison, will try to have his way with Love on both ends of the floor as he has a slight size advantage at 6 feet, 11 inches and 250 pounds and has more collegiate experience than the young Bruin.
But it won’t just be the presence of Morrison on the inside that Portland State tries to take advantage of; the Vikings have a solid outside game with quick, versatile guards in Jeremiah Dominguez and Deonte Huff.
“Dominguez is a nice little player, really quick, really fast ““ handles the ball well,” Howland said of Love’s former AAU teammate.
With it being so early in the season, Howland, a master of studying and preparing for other teams, had a difficult task when doing so for the Bruins’ opening game with very limited video to analyze.
“It’s harder (to prepare) because you know less about your opponent early in the season,” he said. “We have nothing on Portland State. We have not seen them, we have no film on them from this year; all we know about them is from last year.”
DRIBBLERS: The Vikings are 4-36 all-time against Pac-10 teams, with a pair of victories over both Arizona State and Oregon, but they have never faced UCLA … Howland has faced Portland State in the past as the coach of Northern Arizona, his first stop as a head coach … Last year, the Vikings lost by a score of 77-74 to Weber State in the Big Sky Tournament semifinals. Weber State is Howland’s alma mater and was also the Bruins’ first-round opponent in last season’s NCAA Tournament.
But there is one person who has been waiting even longer for this moment: Kevin Love.
The No. 2 UCLA men’s basketball team will finally take the floor in a meaningful game with the help of Love, coach Ben Howland’s top recruit.
“I’m definitely excited to finally play and be a part of this team,” Love said. “I’ve been waiting for this day for a while now.”
When the Bruins open up the regular season at home tonight in Pauley Pavilion against Portland State, however, the lineup will be heavily depleted, as starting point guard Darren Collison and sharp-shooter Michael Roll are currently sidelined due to injuries.
While Collison may be back in time for Monday’s CBE Classic opener, UCLA will have to play without Roll for about a month, which means that sophomore Nikola Dragovic and freshman Chace Stanback will be seeing more minutes than usual.
“We’re going to be short-handed, but I still have a lot of confidence with this team,” sophomore guard Russell Westbrook said.
There’s always a reason Howland schedules non-conference games against the teams that he does, and Portland State fits into that increasingly prominent trend.
Howland was able to list a series of reasons for having his squad go up against a team such as the Vikings.
“They won 19 games last year; they have the bulk of that team back this year, (and) they’re a senior-oriented team,” he said. “I thought they’d provide us with a pretty good first test out of the box.”
The Vikings, coming off of a 19-13 season that saw them finish fourth in the Big Sky Conference, pose some potential threats for the Bruins.
With Love and Westbrook ““ who is taking over in place of the injured Collison ““ both starting, the Bruins will be showing a young squad against what Howland considers to be a veteran team.
One of the Portland State veterans, Scott Morrison, will try to have his way with Love on both ends of the floor as he has a slight size advantage at 6 feet, 11 inches and 250 pounds and has more collegiate experience than the young Bruin.
But it won’t just be the presence of Morrison on the inside that Portland State tries to take advantage of; the Vikings have a solid outside game with quick, versatile guards in Jeremiah Dominguez and Deonte Huff.
“Dominguez is a nice little player, really quick, really fast ““ handles the ball well,” Howland said of Love’s former AAU teammate.
With it being so early in the season, Howland, a master of studying and preparing for other teams, had a difficult task when doing so for the Bruins’ opening game with very limited video to analyze.
“It’s harder (to prepare) because you know less about your opponent early in the season,” he said. “We have nothing on Portland State. We have not seen them, we have no film on them from this year; all we know about them is from last year.”
DRIBBLERS: The Vikings are 4-36 all-time against Pac-10 teams, with a pair of victories over both Arizona State and Oregon, but they have never faced UCLA … Howland has faced Portland State in the past as the coach of Northern Arizona, his first stop as a head coach … Last year, the Vikings lost by a score of 77-74 to Weber State in the Big Sky Tournament semifinals. Weber State is Howland’s alma mater and was also the Bruins’ first-round opponent in last season’s NCAA Tournament.