After a fantastic freshman season, capped by dominant
performances in the NCAA Tournament, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute
seemed poised for a breakout sophomore season. When the forward
poured in a career-high 24 points while grabbing 11 rebounds
against BYU to open the season, it looked like a sign of things to
come. However, while the sophomore has been an imperative part of
the Bruins’ success this season, his numbers have settled
back to earth and both his rebounding and scoring averages are
right around where they were last year. Mbah a Moute has only
reached double digits in points twice in his last nine games. With
Josh Shipp out for at least the USC game, Mbah a Moute will be
counted on to play a wing position in addition to his regular power
forward duties and will likely have more opportunities to score.
“We have to get him some more shots,” UCLA coach Ben
Howland said. “He’s definitely capable. … He can go
off anytime and score quite a few points.” While Mbah a Moute
scoring numbers have not exploded the way some thought they might,
Howland has still seen improvement in a variety of ways. “I
think he’s better than he was (last year),” Howland
said. “He’s a year older, he’s a year more
experienced. He’s doing more to make plays for others this
year. He’s really doing a nice job distributing the
ball.” Another quantifiable area in which Mbah a Moute has
improved this year is steals. He averaged 1.1 steals a game in his
freshman season and has doubled that output this year, averaging
exactly 2.2 steals a game. Mbah a Moute has been using his quick
hands and feet to get in passing lanes and cause turnovers, which
has led to many fast-break opportunities for UCLA this season.
Against Michigan on Dec. 23, Mbah a Moute had a career-high seven
steals in a game the Bruins ended up winning by 37. “When
he’s playing at his peak performance, he’s really truly
something to appreciate,” Howland said. “He’s
playing a lot of minutes. … It’s just hard to take him out
because he does so much.”
AROUND THE PAC-10: Howland has been saying for a while that the
Pac-10 is the best conference in college basketball this season.
The Ratings Percentage Index now backs him up. After a week in
which Washington State beat Arizona, Oregon beat UCLA, and Stanford
beat Virginia at Virginia, the conference is now collectively the
top RPI conference in the nation. UCLA and Arizona own the top two
RPI spots among NCAA Division I teams. “The Stanford win at
Virginia the other day ““ what a great win for Stanford but
also for the Pac-10. I’ll be really interested to see what
happens come March in terms of NCAA bids. I’ll be surprised
if (the Pac-10) doesn’t (have six teams earn bids) based on
how things are going right now,” Howland said.