The long-awaited day has finally arrived for the UCLA men’s basketball team.
Months after their Final Four loss to the Florida Gators, the Bruins, ranked No. 1 in nearly every preseason poll, will begin their first day of practice tonight at 10 p.m. at Pauley Pavilion.
Though the practice is closed to the public, the team will finally get a chance to take the court together in an organized practice run by coach Ben Howland, who just last week signed a contract extension through the 2013-2014 season.
“It’s going to be a very exciting year,” Howland said. “Provided we stay healthy, I think we really have a chance to have a good year.”
At the moment, however, health remains a slight concern for the Bruins. Sophomore James Keefe, junior Michael Roll and senior Lorenzo Mata-Real are all in the process of recovering from a variety of injuries, limiting the amount of practice Howland will be able to conduct with a full squad in the upcoming weeks.
Though Mata-Real is expected to be ready by tonight’s practice, Howland will likely limit his time to avoid further injury to his already sprained foot.
“My biggest concern with this team is we only have 11 scholarship players, we’re allowed thirteen,” Howland said, citing the departure of Arron Afflalo to the NBA and the transfer of Ryan Wright to Oklahoma. “We’re down to ten guys that can practice (because of injuries).”
But perhaps the most trivial part of the preseason will be spent figuring out a starting lineup, as this season’s UCLA squad has more size and strength than in the past several years, allowing the Bruins to run the floor with more big men.
And with the defensive versatility of junior Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Howland will have and undoubtedly use the luxury of playing both Mata-Real and freshman Kevin Love simultaneously at the power forward and center positions.
“There are a lot of options,” Howland said. “Luc’s going to play more minutes at the three this year. We’re going to go big this season.”
Mbah a Moute’s ability to defend anyone from a point guard to a center with some degree of success is a rare one, and one that the Bruins hope to capitalize on throughout the season.
“Luc is one of the few guys in college basketball that can guard a one through a five,” Howland said of Mbah a Moute, who was a point guard in high school. “Name all the guys that can do that. That kind of versatility is rare.”
Sophomore Russell Westbrook will also add a new component to the Bruin offense as he will get minutes backing up junior Darren Collison while also running alongside Collison as the shooting guard.
For Collison, tonight will mark the first day of many that will be required to help him attain not only his personal goal, but the goal of the team ““ a national championship.
“Back-to-back Final Fours wasn’t good enough for us,” Collison said. “Looking back at the season, it was a lot of fun, but we still wanted to win a championship and I think that’s going to make us enjoy this year more.”
CARRYING THE LOAD AGAIN: Collison will yet again be expected to step up this season and fill in the shoes of a former teammate who took an early leave from UCLA to pursue a career in the NBA.
Just one season after successfully stepping in as the Bruins’ starting point guard for current Los Angeles Laker Jordan Farmar, Collison will look to take over as the team’s leader, along with junior Josh Shipp, as Afflalo left UCLA for the NBA’s Detroit Pistons.
“I understand what Arron brought to the table and Jordan brought to the table in the previous years, but this is our turn and we’re up for the challenge,” Collison said.
POWERFUL PAC-10: Once again, Howland feels that the Pac-10 is the strongest conference in the nation from top to bottom, and the one with the most depth.
Howland, entering his fifth year as UCLA’s coach, has his team focused on capturing the conference title before looking too far ahead of itself, and knows the task won’t be any easier this year than it was last season.
“Our league is so strong and so balanced,” he said. “And I don’t think there’s any question about that. It’s going to be quite a challenge.”
Howland’s expectations of the conference would be record-setting as he feels the Pac-10 is very capable of topping the ACC’s 1995 feat of having eight players selected in the first round of the NBA Draft.