UCLA shooting guard Brian Morrison will be sidelined for at
least at least two weeks after pulling his left hamstring in
Saturday’s 64-58 win over Michigan State. He is expected to
miss three games and not return until the Washington State game on
Jan. 8, according to coach Ben Howland.
“I don’t even want to think about it right
now,” said Morrison, a 6-foot-2 junior. “It just
definitely sucks, but we won tonight.”
Morrison was going around a screen in an attempt to contend
Chris Hill’s three-pointer when he planted his left foot,
pulled his hamstring, and went down near the Michigan State bench
with 3:23 left in the second half. Following the game, he left the
court on crutches.
Howland told Morrison he would have to receive daily treatment
from team doctors in Los Angeles and even on the road at the
Michigan game, thereby preventing him from returning home for the
holidays. However, Morrison, a Redmond, Wash., native said he plans
to go home early to arrange for treatment there.
Morrison is one of the Pacific 10 Conference’s leading
three-point shooters, averaging three per contest. Coming off the
bench Saturday for the first game this season after T.J. Cummings
eligibility, Morrison was 3-for-3 from three-point range and scored
11 points before the injury.
Junior Janou Rubin and senior Jon Crispin will get
Morrison’s minutes at shooting guard. With Morrison and
junior Ryan Walcott out sustaining injuries, Crispin, who played a
few minutes at point guard for the first time Saturday, also
figures to see more time there. Walcott re-aggravated his bad back
in Friday’s practice after having battled muscle spasms since
Tuesday.
JUST SHOOT ME: UCLA was a woeful 16-for-35 from the free-throw
line and is now shooting just 59.8 percent on the season.
“That was just really horrible,” Howland said.
“If we can just make 65-70 percent of our foul shots, we win
this one handily.”
Guard Cedric Bozeman was the most inept of the Bruins, missing
on 8 of 9 attempts, including ones in crunch time when Michigan
State was forced to foul.
“I don’t think I’ve missed that many in a game
ever,” Bozeman said. “It just snowballed. I’ll
work through this and not let it happen again.”
Forward Trevor Ariza wasn’t much better, going just
2-for-8.
Then again, this can be called an improvement from the
Bruins’ 5-for-23 exhibition performance against the EA Sports
All-Stars last month.
CRAZY ABOUT RETRO: The Bruins turned back the clock, wearing
replica jerseys similar to those of the 1964 inaugural national
championship team under coach John Wooden. The jerseys have
“BRUINS” on the front instead of the traditional
“UCLA.”
Howland said that since UCLA played in jerseys Saturday and won,
he would ask athletic director Dan Guerrero if the team could wear
them again for its next home game Jan. 2 against Oregon State.