Men’s basketball prepares for unfamiliar James Madison
Redshirt junior forward David Wear and the Bruins are playing James Madison tonight in Pauley before they head to Brooklyn, N.Y.
By Chris Nguyen
Nov. 15, 2012 12:08 a.m.
UCLA played a lesser-known basketball program Tuesday night in UC Irvine and barely came out on top.
Tonight, the Bruins play a team that even they have trouble identifying.
“We can’t really have lulls in practice. We need to keep the intensity up, especially preparing for a good George Mason team coming up on Thursday. … George Madison. James Madison. I don’t even know,” said redshirt junior forward David Wear, stumbling through his words.
He eventually got the name of his opponent right ““ James Madison. Tonight’s game is the Dukes’ first game of the season and is a regional round contest of the Progressive Legends Classic.
Although UCLA emerged from Tuesday night’s game with a victory, it didn’t necessarily come away unscathed while on upset alert.
Midway through the first half, freshman guard Kyle Anderson came down with a right hand injury. And although he later returned to the game, he had to get X-rays yesterday.
The X-rays were negative, but it was determined that Anderson sustained a bone contusion on his right wrist from an MRI taken later in the day. Whether or not he’ll see the court tonight will be a game-time decision.
“Kyle did go through a walk-through today in preparation for tomorrow’s game,” said coach Ben Howland yesterday. “He wasn’t handling the ball a lot but we’re hoping this thing works out.”
Junior guard Tyler Lamb missed Tuesday’s game against the Anteaters due to knee inflammation and like Anderson will be a game-time decision tonight. Unlike Anderson, Lamb did not participate in the walk-through.
Another Bruin that may be missing is freshman forward Shabazz Muhammad. Muhammad has been unable to play in the first two games of the season after being declared ineligible by the NCAA.
However, UCLA took another step forward in trying to reinstate Muhammad on Wednesday.
“This afternoon, UCLA filed an appeal of the violations that were presented last Friday in reference to Shabazz Muhammad,” Howland said Wednesday. “The appeal will be heard by the NCAA this Friday. We hope we will have an answer shortly thereafter. We cannot comment any further on the process at this time.”
In a near upset against UCI, one of the lone bright spots was freshman guard Jordan Adams, who led UCLA in scoring in its first two games with 21 and 26 points, respectively.
Redshirt senior guard Larry Drew II knew exactly who to get the ball to on the offensive end as Adams has established himself as a go-to option on offense.
“I was telling (Adams) toward the end of the game that we just need to get stops and then on offense (he’s) our primary option,” Drew said.
Although Adams was a lesser-known recruit than the others in his class, the Bruins shouldn’t forget his game.
