Getting Back Into Shipp Shape

By Bruin Basketball Report

According to ESPN, UCLA guard/forward Josh Shipp has been cleared for full contact practice with the team.

Shipp injured himself in a summer game last year and had arthroscopic surgery in September on his right hip to repair a torn labrum (cartilage) and to remove a bone spur.

He attempted a return to the team last December and was in the Bruin starting line-up for the Pac-10 opener against Stanford at Pauley Pavilion.

However four games after his return, Shipp announced the pain in his surgically repaired hip was unmangeable and he would sit out the rest of the 2005-06 season to apply for a medical red-shirt.

Shipp's return to the UCLA roster for the 2006-07 season would help solidify a backcourt which may lose one or two of its top guards, Jordan Farmar and Arron Afflalo, to the NBA draft this year.

From most reports, Farmar is still projected as a middle to late first-round draft choice, while word from Afflalo's workouts with NBA teams indicates he would be a second round draft selection.

Both players have maintained throughout the NBA draft try-out process they would only stay in the draft if they were guarenteed a spot in the first round.

Shipp averaged 9.3 and 5.2 rebounds as a freshman. In four games during his injury-plagued sophomore season, he averaged 11.3 points and 4.8 rebounds while shooting 46% from three-point distance.

In an interview with Shipp, he indicated full confidence in teammate point-guard Darren Collison's ability to run the team next season if Farmar decided to leave for the NBA this year.

"We'll be quicker and we'll pick up the tempo," Shipp said of playing with Collison if Farmar leaves. "He's a good point-guard who got good experience during the Final Four."

Collison averaged 5.5 points and 2.3 assists in 19 minutes per contest last season. He played in every contest along with two other Bruins, a team-record 39 games.

(BruinBasketballReport.com)

(photo credit: AP)