Howland: "We are trying to win, now"

Bruin basketball Coach Ben Howland had a teleconference today with local media; most of the session concerned the latest injury to guard Michael Roll:

>> "We are still waiting to see how Michael is feeling today. I think we’ll have a better indication of what’s going on with him based on his MRI he’ll have in the morning (Jan. 2) and on his symptoms and the kind of soreness and swelling he either has or doesn’t have after a couple of days of this thing quieting down. Our athletic trainer’s [Carrie Rubertino] initial reaction is that it is a partial tear of the plantar fascia in a different spot. But you don’t know for sure until you have the MRI and compare. Her guess is that he could be out for at least three weeks. The last time he had it, it was a partial tear and not a complete rupture, which would have actually been preferable. I watched the film and he was blocking out on a blockout drill and he went to push off on his toe, it wasn’t like he was jumping, it was just a quick push and he felt it twinge. The first time when it happened, he said he heard it pop; this time it didn’t pop, but it was similar pain. I haven’t seen Michael yet today and how it affects James [Keefe] and the rest of the team is still yet to be determined.

"He said that he didn’t have any pain after Saturday’s (Dec. 29) game. He played 26 minutes the other night, so it is disappointing. When you don’t completely rupture the plantar fascia, you still have the potential to do so. He was in a very hard shoe, special orthotics were made, his foot was taped very carefully every time in a certain way, and we took all of these precautions to try and alleviate reinjuring it. But any foot specialist will tell you that they aren’t surprised that this happened.

"I won’t have any true indication of the severity of his injury for another 24-48 hours. So, it’s all up in the air right now in terms of what I can plan on and what I can’t."

>> Asked whether he might consider a red-shirt year for Roll, Howland said, "There are just so many hypothetical situations right now and what if’s that it’s hard for me. I’m not going to base any decisions on what if’s. I’m going to wait until I get the actual facts of what we do know by Thursday. I think we’ll have a better indication as to Mike’s severity of his injury then. My first inclination is that I want him to come back because we’re trying to do something now with this team that we have. We have so much experience returning from back-to-back Final Fours. We are trying to win, now."

>> "As hard as we play defensively and how we emphasize pressuring the ball and how physical and strong our league is, I don’t think you can have success playing just seven guys that many minutes. I think we need an eighth and a ninth man available to us."

>> Asked about the possibilities of Chace Stanback and Nikola Dragovic filling in with more playing time: "I think [Stanback] has improved and I thought he played well in the game the other night and he’s had good practices since the Christmas break. I’ve been pleased with his improvement recently. It is good because we are going to need him. Nikola Dragovic is practicing hard, but I told him that the one thing we expect him to do well is shoot the ball well, and he’s not done that. I think he’s starting to get himself into better physical condition. He came back from Europe in late August with two scars from hernia operations that really put him out of commission for a while. During that time, he unfortunately put some weight on, so I think he is finally getting back to his playing weight."

>> "Lorenzo [Mata-Real] practiced well and got through practice fine and I was excited about that. Based on yesterday’s practice, I expect Lorenzo to play against Stanford."

>> "Darren [Collison] practiced without his knee brace on. He had no knee brace, no sleeve, nothing. He liked having it [the brace] off. He talked about it. He was glad to have that thing off."

>> Asked about Stanford’s Brook Lopez, who regained his eligibility just a couple of weeks ago: "Exactly what we thought, he’s one of the best big men in the country. He’s a future NBA player and really creates a lot of problems for you at both ends of the floor."