UCLA basketball: Reeves Nelson won’t start against Chaminade

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The Lahaina Civic Center is about what you would expect seeing it on television.

Super tiny. Only a few hundred feet from the ocean. Not a bad seat in the place.

Fortunately, on a humid late-November Maui afternoon, the air conditioning is working just fine. UCLA has completed some initial warmups prior to its opening game against Chaminade in the Maui Invitational. Fans are just starting to trickle in for a game scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. PST and televised by ESPNU.

Junior forward Reeves Nelson emerged with his teammates in specially designed warmup gear featuring a Hawaiian flair before removing his top and taking shots in a white undershirt. No word whether Nelson will be in the starting lineup after missing the team bus to Los Angeles International Airport on the heels of his indefinite suspension that forced him to sit out the Bruins’ 20-point loss to Middle Tennessee State.

[UPDATED, 6:15 p.m.: Nelson will not start against Chaminade.]

UCLA is 0-2 and has not started 0-3 since the 1940-41 season, when the Bruins dropped their first eight games under Coach Wilbur Johns. Chaminade has six victories in the 27-year history of this tournament, with the Division II Silverswords’ most recent triumph coming last year against Oklahoma.

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--Ben Bolch in Lahaina, Hawaii