Darren Collison updates

[Russ Smith]

A couple of days ago Howland said that Collison wouldn't play until the 12-8 game against Davidson.

Yesterday at a press conference they updated the status by saying he's now day to day and may play a few minutes against George Washington if he continues to pass the daily medical checks, that game is tonight at 7:30 so he's still a game time decision but sounds like even if he doesn't play tonight he's further along than the 12-8 forecast said.

Would be great to see him get 5-10 minutes tonight so that he's got some rust off before the 12-2 game against Texas assuming he's going to now be able to play in that game. Augustin is off to a terrific start and Texas really moves the ball so it'd be nice to see Darren get his legs before that game.

Westbrook has been terrific in his place but my opinion has not changed, with Collison UCLA has a chance to hang Banner 12, without him they can be good maybe very good but not a final 4 team.

 

[Russ Smith]

Sounds like DC probably will play a bit tonight and I'm reading that Mike Roll may play too.

Would be great if true although returning 2 key guys who haven't played at all could be a bit disruptive if they're rusty.

 

[Russ Smith]

Wow played 26 minutes last night 14 points 5 assists no turnovers. I didn't get to see it(don't have FSN Pacific yet) but I'm told he got knocked hard to the floor in the first half, stayed down for a second, realized he was ok, and from that point on was the DC of old.

The continuing story with UCLA now is the perception of a lot of UCLA fans that there's an issue brewing between Josh Shipp and Kevin Love. I semi noticed it early on but figured it was just Shipp getting used to playing with a real post scorer but apparently last night it reached the point where coaches were on the sideline calming Love down because he was visibly upset.

Basically a lot of UCLA fans think that Josh Shipp is intentionally "Freezing out" Love by not passing to him in the post. Apparently it happened several times again last night and was so obvious that cameras caught Love angrily staring at Shipp before he was taken out of the game. Later in the game he made his patented outlet to Shipp for a dunk, when everyone came to the bench the whole team high fived Shipp, but Love walked right to a seat and sat down.

Tough situation at first I just thought nobody is used to playing with a real post scorer but I do now agree that Shipp wants to be "the man" and I think he's ignoring Kevin out of jealousy? Howland needs to address it with the guys now so it doesn't become an issue later, Love took 4 shots last night in the entire game, he's too good to get that few.

 

[Ronin]

So is Darren Collison going to play on 12/2? D.J Augustin vs Darren Collison, now that should be a good game!

 

[Russ Smith]

So is Darren Collison going to play on 12/2? D.J Augustin vs Darren Collison, now that should be a good game!

Yes, not sure if he'll start but DC will be the primary PG against Texas, he's wearing a knee brace but otherwise is close to 100%.