Basketball kaleidoscope: Love on leaving

The most accurate public comment we’ve seen so far on whether Kevin Love will return for his sophomore season at UCLA came from his mother, Karen, in an article in today’s New York Times:

"I’m pro-school," she told reporter John Branch. "But there are those factors, you know. If you’re going to be a lottery pick, and we don’t know if he is or not, but how can you not go? That’s more money than people make in their lifetime. You have a chance to stay and get injured. There’s so much to weigh."

That’s exactly what the whispers have been since midseason, but Love’s performance — and those of other potential draftees — in the NCAA Tournament may make a difference in his draft status.

Also of note:

>> UCLA’s director of marketing, Scott Mitchell, on tickets for NCAA Tournament games:

"We sold out of our Anaheim allotment of tickets in an hour on Sunday night. Our tickets went to UCLA's highest-level donors. Assuming we advance, we'll be issued more tickets for Phoenix than Anaheim, and will be able to take care of more people. If what has happened in past years holds up, we'll be able to take care of the vast majority of our season ticket-holders should we get to San Antonio (the past two years, every season ticket-holder was given the option of purchasing Final Four tickets, regardless of whether they were a donor or not). Unlike virtually every other major sporting event, in this tournament the further you go, the easier it is to obtain tickets."

More details are available on the uclabruins.com website, which includes this notice: "The allocation of tickets by the NCAA to each of the first- and second-round participants is 350 tickets. We expect only about 100 tickets to be available to our highest level support group members since we are required to provide tickets to our team, coaches, students and band."

>> The Times has a unique tool that tracks who’s playing where and how far they have to go in the tournament.

Interactive technology editor Eric Ulken notes, "This is the brainchild of cartography guru Tom Lauder, rendered in Flash by Sean Connelley with an able assist on data crunching from Ben Welsh.

"Interesting factoid from the map: Cornell is the school with the farthest to travel to its first game: 2,302 miles to Anaheim."