Kansas City, Mo. “”mdash; Besides slowing down to dunk on Maryland center Bambale Osby, besides screaming in Osby’s face after throwing it down on him to go ahead 13-4 with 12:25 to go in the first half, and besides the technical foul that was subsequently assessed on him, there was this: Josh Shipp’s surgically repaired hips appear to be OK.
After an outlet pass from Kevin Love midway through the first quarter, Shipp collected the ball, gathered himself, and threw down an emphatic dunk that was proof enough that his recovery from offseason hip surgery is now nearly complete.
“I wouldn’t say it was easy; I know I make it look easy,” Shipp said. “I’m definitely feeling good. I’ve been rehabbing a lot.”
The rehab has shown. In Monday’s game, Shipp had 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting. His shot looks better than it did a year ago, when he was coming off of his first hip surgery, and he appears to have slimmed down, making him better able to handle the two-guard spot.
Thus far this season, Shipp is averaging a little over 15 points a game, and has played controlled, fundamental basketball ““ for the most part.
Of course, there is the occasional aberration, like the screaming after the dunk.
“We’ve already talked about the technical foul in the locker room, so we’ll just keep it at that,” coach Ben Howland said.
Shipp echoed his coach’s words.
“It wasn’t good,” Shipp said about what Howland told him in the locker room. “I learned my lesson.
“I don’t know (what I said), I got caught up in the game,” Shipp said with a grin. “It won’t happen again.”
The affable Shipp did not put the team in a very good situation after getting into foul trouble. After getting a second foul with 7:36 to go in the first half, Shipp sat out the rest of the half. He played a total of 10 minutes in the first half, which was not something a depleted UCLA guard rotation needed.
“We’re playing guys a lot of minutes,” Howland said. “Russell played 38 minutes. It was unfortunate that we were in foul trouble like that. I thought (Chace Stanback) came in and did a decent job for us at the end of the half.”
Stanback, a freshman who will likely play forward for the team when it returns to full health, does not really possess the necessary guard skills to help out effectively against a press defense. The other option at the two position, Nikola Dragovic, is even more poorly suited to that task.
Effectively, Shipp’s foul trouble put the Bruins in a one-guard lineup for much of the game, a precarious position for a team operating against frequent full-court pressure.
All in all, however, the Bruins had just 18 turnovers, despite having only two healthy scholarship guards. Westbrook continued his good play with a seven-assist, three-turnover effort, and, despite the technical, Howland was pleased with his guards.
“Both of those guys (Westbrook and Shipp) made really big (plays) in the second half attacking the press,” Howland said. “Josh made the first (3) that really broke things open.”
Overall, the Bruins shot just 30.8 percent from the 3-point line, but the 3s came at timely moments. Shipp hit one that put the Bruins on the crest of their run to make the score 41-23 early in the second half, and Westbrook hit one with 8:21 to go after Maryland closed within 10.
COLLISON UPDATE: Howland said that point guard Darren Collison has been progressing from his knee injury, but that he would not rush him to come back.
Howland said that Collison could possibly be sidelined as late as the Wooden Classic on Dec. 8.