Kevin Love

BERKELEY -- Former UCLA star Baron Davis stood with his arms crossed and gave a head nod in the direction of the visitor's locker room at Haas Pavilion. Inside he could hear the hooting and hollering from the celebrating Bruins, who had just beaten California, 70-58, Saturday to begin the Pacific 10 Conference season with two hard-nosed road victories. How good, Davis was asked, was UCLA? "Very good," Davis said. And how would Davis evaluate Bruins freshman center Kevin Love?

Kevin Love said he had to "step up and be a man." He apologized and took full blame. But not for missing a defensive hedge or a layup. Love was forestalling a mini-media crisis Tuesday. Love missed UCLA's weekly news conference. Josh Shipp, Russell Westbrook, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Lorenzo Mata-Real, James Keefe and Chace Stanback made an appearance.

This is about a tempest in a teapot, a condition found frequently in the silly bureaucracy of the NCAA. Just before the start of this college basketball season, UCLA received a letter of inquiry from the NCAA, seeking information about possible illegal contact between a recruit and a person representing the interests of the university. The recruit was Kevin Love, now the Bruins' star freshman center. The person representing the interests of the university was John Wooden.

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.

Sorry for the downer, but have you looked at the UCLA schedule? If Kevin Love is a one-year player, he has four games left in Pauley Pavilion. UCLA is steamrollering the Pacific 10 Conference and Love is looking more confident at every turn, this time with a 26-point, 11-rebound outing in an 82-60 victory over what until Saturday was a hot Arizona team. But the season is rapidly evaporating, and Love has noticed. "I really can't believe it," he said.

Kevin Love backtracked a little from his contention that he should have gotten more than eight shots in UCLA's 71-61 loss to Washington on Sunday. Love, the Bruins' 6-foot-10 freshman center who leads UCLA in scoring and rebounding, found out thinking he was open wasn't the same as being open. "I don't have eyes on the back of my head," Love said. "I can't see the defender behind me sometimes." Love is discovering the second time around in Pacific 10 Conference play can be rough.

There are 12 minutes left in the first half, and I'm still waiting for this city's great NBA prospect to score his first point. In a college game. Against Oregon. O.J. Mayo has done just about everything else for USC, the center of attention as promised. He's had one of his dribbles stripped. He's had another dribble stolen. He's fouled a guy after missing a rushed shot. He's stood around while another guy sneaked behind him for a rebound and a basket.

Without offering an absolute explanation for what he called his "low energy level," UCLA freshman Kevin Love promised he would not have another game in which his enthusiasm and focus seemed away from basketball, alluding to UCLA's victory over Oregon last Saturday. As point guard Darren Collison noted, it is the special player who can score 15 points with 11 rebounds and have his effort questioned. "Actually he showed me he was a great player," Collison said.

Kevin Love was aware of the rumors circulating a few months ago on the Internet and through anonymous e-mails to sportswriters: Word was that his UCLA teammates, jealous of the hype lavished on the 6-foot-10 freshman center, were refusing to pass to him in the post because they didn't want him to look good.

As one Southland freshman ended his final fade, the other one began his final bloom. As one Southland freshman waved a desultory good-bye, the other one grabbed us in a sweaty embrace. On a night when the brief O.J. Mayo era ended in an Omaha stun, the final days of the brief Kevin Love era began with an Anaheim swat. And another one. And another one. Three blocked shots in the first three minutes, and he was just getting started, the kid using March to show us how he has become a man.