SCOOP DREAMS: _Exhibition will let us get a look at alternates _
Sophomore forward Reeves Nelson is one of two injured Bruin starters.
By Eli Smukler
Nov. 9, 2010 3:03 a.m.
These exhibitions are funny beasts.
Some of you will see every missed rebound by the home team as a sign of the apocalypse. Some of you will dismiss these contests right off the bat because the opponent schools have enrollments the size of your GE lectures. Some of you still think I’m talking about an art show.
In reality, the correlation between the exhibition outcomes and how UCLA will actually perform during the regular season is minimal at best. (Unless of course they need a last-second three-pointer to win, but when does that ever happen?)
The two games that the UCLA men’s basketball team plays before every season don’t count toward its win-loss record, but they can be used to see how the roster shakes out for certain situations of limited availability.
Lucky for you, this inner dimension of the team will be on full display because UCLA broke the cardinal rule of the exhibition schedule: Do not get injured.
On Friday morning, a day after UCLA cruised to a 95-59 victory over Westmont College, sophomore starting forward Reeves Nelson rolled out of bed only to notice his “rectus femoris” felt a little funny. That would mean a strained hip flexor for those of you who didn’t just type a misspelled version of that into a Google search field.
That same day, freshman center Joshua Smith found out that the X-ray he got on the right thumb he sprained against the Warriors came back negative. Smith played eight good minutes in that game before the injury cut short his first Pauley Pavilion showcase.
“What kind of scared me was I couldn’t feel it for about 15 seconds, and I thought it was something bad,” Smith said.
You’re not alone there, Josh.
Fortunately, it looks like neither injury will be too serious.
Smith will most likely play tonight against Cal State Los Angeles ““ albeit with a well-bandaged digit on his shooting hand ““ and Nelson is optimistic about returning by UCLA’s regular season opener this Friday against Cal State Northridge.
But seeing Smith on the bench gingerly holding his dominant hand in his lap is not a vision the Bruins can afford to get used to, and going without Smith or Nelson for too long would absolutely mean this team is in trouble.
As Nelson showed by his 20-point, 10-rebound performance on Thursday, he is going to be essential to the team’s season stats in both of those categories. In fact, his trimmer physique makes him the perfect kind of post player for the new run-and-gun style that coach Ben Howland is trying to employ.
Smith is equally as critical to the team’s success this year even if he isn’t the missing heir to Kevin Love’s long abandoned throne that the Bruin faithful desperately want him to be.
Tonight’s game will give us a good idea of how Howland chooses to use his alternatives, which are specifically limited to a combination of sophomore forward Brendan Lane and redshirt freshman center Anthony Stover.
Unfortunately, he won’t get any help from sophomore forwards David and Travis Wear who will be spending the season watching from the bench in non-matching sweaters (because the NCAA needs to be able to properly differentiate them) because of transfer rules.
No matter the opponent, that means Lane and Stover will have to step up tonight, setting a precedent for the dire straits the Bruins will very possibly face at some point this season if either Smith or Nelson cannot play for some reason.
On Monday, Howland called Lane his best interior defender. That may come as a surprise to those who saw Lane get muscled out of the paint down the stretch last season.
“That was one of the biggest things I worked on (this offseason),” Lane said. “Last year, I wasn’t able to defend some of the bigger players and that really hurt us as a team because I wasn’t able to hold my own inside.”
Howland also lauded the defense Stover displayed during his Thursday night debut, but warned not to expect too much offensive output from that 7-foot-7 wingspan just yet.
Tonight’s contest won’t prove anything substantial about the team’s future. I promise.
But players like Lane and Stover need the extra time in the spotlight, and you can be sure Howland will use that time to judge their reliability.
