Ben Howland Thanksgiving Teleconference Notes

(courtesy of UCLA Athletics)

Teleconference Quotes
November 22, 2007
UCLA Men’s Basketball
Head Coach Ben Howland

on Alfred Aboya’s Right Knee Injury
“Alfred is coming in today for treatment. He did have some swelling after the game. We did a precautionary MRI and it didn’t show anything wrong. He has injured that [right] knee before so that’s why we were so cautious. I spoke with him a few minutes ago and he said that he felt fine. He had some soreness, but nothing serious.”

on the hard fall and awkward Russell Westbrook took during the game
“I’ll tell you what, when I watched that fall of Russell’s on film after the game, it was a pretty serious fall. I regret what I said after the game because he’s done that many times – where he makes a bad play and then gets up slow like he’s injured but he’s really not – that could have been a season-ending injury the way he fell. It was really something. The good news is, he’s fine.”

on Darren Collison’s schedule of return
“I have no idea.”

on his reaction to the Michigan State game after watching the film
“Just how physical the game was. I have watched it twice on film and it was unbelievably physical. They were being really physical with Kevin [Love]. A lot of guys got into foul trouble because of the way they were playing him. They screen really physically. I said before the game that I thought it would be very similar to the Texas A&M game last year, and I think that was really true, maybe even more physical than that game a year ago. It was really a high-level game. Now we have to bounce back and play a good Yale team.”

on Friday’s game with Yale
“Now we’ve got to bounce back and play a good Yale team. I watched the Yale tape this morning and they have three guys that average 15 points. They played UMass very tough and ended up losing by nine – and it was the same thing with Stanford – it was a three-point game with 14 minutes left. They have good players and we are going to have to play well tomorrow to have success.”

on Kevin Love’s adjustment to different styles of play
“We haven’t had that many games yet. Both of those games [Maryland and Michigan State] were high-level games in terms of the size of the bodies, but he’s rebounding consistently in every game. That’s really a key statistic. The ability to get 16 rebounds one night and 11 the other, that’s hard to do. To get double figures on the board every night is incredibly tough. He did a great job of battling against a very good team. Michigan State, in my mind, will be a very high seed and has a great chance to be the Big 10 champion. I watched Ohio State last night and they are very good. I know Indiana is very good. Illinois and Purdue are going to be very good teams. But they [Michigan State] are going to be a force to be reckoned with and that’s a good sign to play that well against a team like that.”

on what he’s doing for Thanksgiving
“We are getting ready to go to practice here in about 50 minutes. Everybody has somewhere to go and they will all be well fed. My wife and daughter will be making our standard meal with turkey. I love gravy. So, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, it all sounds very good.”

(photo by Bruin Basketball Report)