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But that was Stanford. UCLA lucked one out against a highly-ranked conference foe.
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Shipp's game-winning shot from behind the basket two days later against Cal was just that. Behind the basket, against the rules. You're either behind the basket or in front of it, not splitting the difference. That's assuming the officials knew the rule existed in the first place.
But the bigger injustice was the mugging (there's that word again) of Cal's Ryan Anderson in the corner with 15.7 seconds left in UCLA's 81-80 victory. The Bruins were trying to foul and the officials wouldn't call it.
Does it change the season? Maybe, maybe not. It does support Point 2: UCLA is continuing to win while its game suffers. The 51 points against Texas A&M was a season low.
You expect slugfests with the defensive-minded Howland. You don't expect his players to forget about Love, who took only 12 shots. Some critics suggested the 6-foot-10, 270-pound force spent too much time wandering away from the basket, a repeated point made by the CBS announcers.
Love is a hard matchup for any team. Why take away his strength, especially when teammates don't score (Shipp in 37 minutes), barely score (Luc Richard Mbah A Moute (two points) or take their time scoring? Russell Westbrook didn't get his first points until less than nine minutes remained in the game.
You can say A&M's defense was a factor. You can also say the game, played in Anaheim with a huge home-court advantage, shouldn't have been that close.
Howland's team has established a disturbing trend lately of having to rally -- 11 points down to Stanford with 5:35 left, 10 points down to Texas A&M in the second half.
Overcoming a 17-point second-half deficit two years ago against Gonzaga in the tournament was inspiring. This recent stuff is reason for concern.
Point 3: Western Kentucky is a worthy opponent. It becomes a dangerous opponent if Shipp continues to struggle. The junior has hit only two of his last 16 3-point attempts. He took extra shooting practice this week.
Perhaps more telling, Shipp has a case of strep throat. Who knows what stage it's in, but Shipp is on antibiotics. I'm no doctor, but for those of you (like me) who have had strep, you don't recover in a day. You certainly don't recover in a day exerting yourself playing basketball.
Mbah A Moute underwent an MRI Monday on what Howland called a "pretty severely" swollen ankle.
Bad combination or just war wounds on the way to San Antonio?
Ah, what am I bitching about? Given all those factors, UCLA still should skate through the West Regional. Right? Neither Western Kentucky, Xavier nor West Virginia seem to match up with the Bruins.
I'd ask Sloan for his opinion, but the nurses said not to disturb him for a while. He's resting comfortably.
