Oregon yearns for a lost Love
UCLA
Ducks fans are angry that Kevin isn't one of them, and Bruins freshman expects to hear about it tonight
On the one hand, Kevin Love turned down Oregon, his home-state university, to play basketball for UCLA, the powerhouse school in the same conference.
On the other hand, Kevin's father, Stan, once an Oregon basketball great himself, ripped into the school and its coach, Ernie Kent, after Kevin committed to UCLA, saying Kent "shot himself in the foot," by doing a poor recruiting job on his son.
So, most fans at McArthur Court in Eugene tonight will be clapping for anyone but Love, father and son.
Love returns as eighth-ranked UCLA (16-2, 4-1 in Pacific 10 Conference play) plays Oregon (12-6, 3-3) in a game that is expected to inspire Photoshopped posters featuring the words "Love" and "traitor."
Stan Love tells a story of how UCLA Coach Ben Howland and North Carolina Coach Roy Williams helped Kevin carry workout equipment into and out of a practice gym while Oregon Coach Ernie Kent "kept one eye on his BlackBerry and never lifted a finger."
Dan Cogan, an Oregon sophomore and president of the Pit Crew, the gold-and-green-wearing students who will number about 1,700 and who have weekly meetings to get ready for new opponents, said indignation and resentment toward Love, who played at Lake Oswego High near Portland, is more pointed than it might be toward another in-state player who left Oregon.
"Stan did go to Oregon," Cogan said. "When Kevin first committed to UCLA, Stan chose to take a shot at the basketball program and the university, so we don't consider him to be a Duck. He's a traitor, that's what he is.
"Kevin, we have mixed feelings. I saw him play in high school and he's the best high school player I've ever seen, but there's a lot of guys from Lake Oswego who have a lot of negative feeling toward Kevin. There's a lot of people up there who think Kevin is pretty high and mighty. And his dad is worse."
Stan Love said he never thought about missing the game to deflate some of the negativity. "No way," he said. "My brother is so excited he's flying up from Tahoe. My sister is there, my brother's family. The Love family will be targeted, so, great. It's going to be bad."
Cogan said that with the help of Photoshop, the Pit Crew has plans for using a photo taken at McArthur Court last year when Love's team lost in the state championships. It shows Love crying.
"There's a lot of people up here who want to see Kevin cry again," Cogan said.
