Howland: "He does a lot of things that are hard to deal with"

Bruin Coach Ben Howland had encouraging news on the injury front at today’s news conference, starting with forward Luc Richard Mbah A Moute, who suffered a concussion against USC:

"Luc is practicing today. He had a CT [scan] yesterday, just for [a] precaution; it’s all negative. He worked out for about an hour yesterday and felt fine afterwards. Hopefully, he’ll have a good result again today.

"Lorenzo [Mata-Real] obviously played on Saturday and he should be fine. [Michael Roll] is at least a few [more] weeks."

Howland said having Mbah A Moute back will help defensively: "He’s one of our best defenders. Having more depth is obviously a huge factor for us, especially on the perimeter."

>> On the Sun Devils, Howland said, "They’re really good. They’re coming off two tough losses at home where they had a chance to win. [James] Harden is one of the best players in the conference. Just look at his numbers and what he’s been able to do as a true freshman; it’s really astounding. He does a lot of things that are hard to deal with. [Jeff] Pendergraph is playing great; [Ty] Abbott’s an outstanding shooter, he really played well on the road in their last road trip to Northern California. So it will be a very, very tough challenge for us.

"They’re very well coached, very disciplined, the kids are playing very much together. They run a Princeton offense, so they have a lot of little, special, quick hitters out of it.

"They play all zone. They play a little 1-3-1 and 1-3-1 trap, but primarily it’s a 3-2 match-up zone that’s pretty aggressive and they pressure the ball, play the passing lanes and match-up on the guys in their area."

>> On the Arizona game Saturday, Howland said he hadn’t researched the Wildcats yet, but said, "I know they’re very good and playing really well, to no one’s surprise. They have outstanding players. In Lute [Olson]’s absence, Kevin [O’Neill] has done a great job. Their defense is very, very good. [Jerryd] Bayless is one of the best players in the conference, another freshman. When he was out of the lineup, they lost a couple of games. When he’s in the lineup, their record is close to being perfect."

Howland also was very pleased with the win at Oregon, noting, "We won a very important game with a lot of our key guys injured. To be able to put it all together in that kind of difficult environment was a very satisfying win."

Asked about the abuse heaped on freshman center Kevin Love, Howland said he received a call from Oregon Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny. "He called yesterday," he said. "He called for me and I wasn’t in, but it was nice of him to do that. That’s behind us now; we’re not worried about that." He noted that Oregon Coach Ernie Kent addressed the crowd about their behavior before the game against USC last Saturday.