Basketball practice report I: Kevin Love: "I’m fine"

UCLA coach Ben Howland opened up a Bruin practice session for probably the last time this season and a crowd of about 200 Hoopsters (a Bruin basketball support group) and reporters watched with interest until star freshman Kevin Love crumpled to the ground during a 5-on-5 scrimmage period.

It got so quiet you could hear people breathing, as Love held his right knee in pain and then hobbled off the court. He received attention from the training staff while the scrimmage continued and re-entered the scrimmage about six minutes later. But he quickly walked off the court again and got his knee taped. More than a dozen news media descended on him immediately after practice.

"I’m fine," he said. "It’s the second time I’ve been hit in that particular area and I actually already had a bruise there, so going up and hitting it again was unfortunate.

"I’ll be back 100 percent tomorrow; I’m fine. It just felt a little weak afterwards. I actually went back down and tried to start playing again, but I felt a little weak and I didn’t want to risk anything because we have a game on Friday."

Asked about the transition between high school and the start of his collegiate career on Friday, he said that one of the things he wanted to do in college was to get better defensively. And where better than at UCLA under the coaching of Howland?

Howland also thought that Love would be fine and noted the enormous difference in talent, intensity and physicality between the high school level and the highest levels of college basketball.