After spending his weekend dominating in the paint, freshman Kevin Love now has an individual honor to go along with UCLA’s two team wins.
Love was named as the US Bank Pac-10 Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week on Monday for his play against Washington and Washington State. He had 11 points, seven rebounds and four assists against the Huskies on Thursday, then set a career high with 27 points to go along with 14 rebounds against the Cougars on Saturday. It was Love’s eighth double-double of the season.
“Kevin ““ I keep saying this, I said it last week ““ he had his best game of his career (against Washington State),” coach Ben Howland said.
In addition to providing a reliable low-post presence for the Bruins, Love also played strong defense against Washington State center Aron Baynes. Love even scored from beyond the arc, going 2-for-3 on 3-pointers.
“We started running some other plays for me to shoot the ball, and I’ve been working a lot on that in practice, so if I have an open 3, I’m going to take it,” Love said. “Those opportunities presented themselves and I just knocked down shots.”
This is the second time this season Love has won the player of the week award. He was also so honored on Nov. 26, after helping the Bruins win the CBE Classic in Kansas City, Mo. Love had 18 points and 16 rebounds in the semifinal against Maryland, then 21 points and 11 rebounds against Michigan State in the tournament final.
HAVE RIVAL, WON’T
TRAVEL: As they prepare to host crosstown rival USC on Saturday, the Bruins will be able to give the Trojans their undivided attention. While UCLA traditionally plays a nonconference game the week of the first USC game, the past few years they have rescheduled that game so that it falls before the start of Pac-10 play. That eliminates the possibility that the Bruins could be forced to travel long-distance in the middle of their conference schedule.
This year, for example, the Bruins played at Michigan. But they did so on Dec. 22 rather than in January or February.
“I really appreciate that we don’t have to play that game,” Howland said. “It makes that game against your crosstown opponent that much tougher.
“(This year) Arizona had to go to Arizona State on Wednesday, then fly to Houston on Friday to play there Saturday. That makes it very difficult for them.”
While in past years UCLA felt that it needed to play a marquee nonconference matchup in order to build up the strength-of-schedule component of its NCAA Tournament resume, with the growing strength of the Pac-10, Howland no longer believes such a game is necessary.
“We had to do that, I think, because we had to play a power opponent,” he said. “(Now) our league is too good to have to play more than 18 games (during the conference season).”
Howland’s players, too, are looking forward to taking on the Trojans without the distraction of another game.
“Everybody wants to get to Saturday as early as we can,” Love said. “It’ll be fun.”