Bruins have nowhere to go in poll

UCLA, 20-2 overall and 8-1 in Pacific 10 Conference play, remained fifth behind Memphis, Duke, North Carolina and Kansas in the AP poll, but moved ahead of Kansas, which lost at Kansas State last week, and into fourth in the coaches' poll.

Stanford, a game behind UCLA in the Pac-10 standings, jumped five spots in both polls, to ninth. The only other ranked Pac-10 team is Washington State, which dropped from ninth to 17th in both polls after losing twice at home, to California and Stanford.

UCLA plays at Washington State on Thursday to start the second half of the conference season and the Bruins will be without starting forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute,who rolled his left ankle in the second half of Saturday's win over Arizona.

After he was evaluated Monday, it was decided Mbah a Moute would be sidelined at least seven days. Mbah a Moute would then get an extra week of rest because after UCLA plays at Washington on Sunday the Bruins will be off until their Feb. 17 game at USC.

Mbah a Moute is averaging 9.2 points and is the team's second-leading rebounder at 5.1 per game. Coach Ben Howland also considers Mbah a Moute and Russell Westbrook his top defensive players.

The most likely starting lineup adjustment would have Alfred Aboya starting at power forward with Josh Shipp at small forward, Westbrook and Darren Collison at guard and Kevin Love at center.

At the halfway mark of the conference season, Love, a freshman, is averaging 11.2 rebounds, tied with Washington's Jon Brockman for the league lead. Love is also tied with Arizona center Jordan Hill atop the Pac-10 leaders in field-goal percentage. Both are shooting 61.1%. . . . Despite a series of injuries that has depleted UCLA's bench almost all season, only Westbrook ranks among the top 20 in the conference in minutes played. Westbrook is 13th with an average of 32.36. USC's O.J. Mayo is first with 36.48.

diane.pucin@latimes.com