Collison: "I’m looking forward to taking this brace off "

"It’s not bad," said Bruin junior guard Darren Collison today of his most recent injury, a minor ankle sprain. "It’s just another thing, a tweak deal. I want to play Saturday. But we’ll see how it goes."

He said he felt he was back to 80% form when he was injured yesterday in practice. "I was starting to get more and more comfortable in myself. These last few days we had off for Christmas break, I was really conditioning myself and trying to get in shape where I need to be.

"I’m starting to trust [the knee] a lot more. It’s not a thing where it’s bothering me or I’m thinking about it or favoring it. But every day that goes by, I’m trusting it and having more and more confidence. I’m looking forward to taking the brace off before the first Pac-10 game, which is Stanford. That will make me extremely happy. It does limit you because you can’t have the full extension the way you want it to. I’ve got to deal with it and it’s helping me not get it re-injured again. When I take this brace off, I should be fine."

He noted that the big impact of the brace is on defense. "I’m still a step slower because of the brace. When I take the brace off, I should feel a little lighter on my legs, so I won’t feel a little bit heavy. It’s kind of heavy, so it’s limiting me from being a step faster, so when I take the brace off, I should be fine."