32-32 at Halftime

Well, it's not quite what I had in mind, but considering the circumstances it's encouraging, even remarkable. Luc-Richard M'bah a'Moute is out of this game (he says he'll be OK next week) due to a sprained ankle suffered in the USC game. Takes away a lot of rebounds. Then, less than 5 minutes in, Kevin Love, our best player, injured his back, and they say he's suffering from back spasms. He's been in a few minutes, then out, and didn't score his first field goal until 3:51 remaining. Probably played only half of the first half. He's obviously not himself, obviously in pain, though he's still gotten some rebounds and thrown a few of those amazing outlet passes that may be the best in college basketball this year. Stanford went up quickly -- I think by as many as 7 or 8, but the Bruins battled back and even led for a brief period. Then Stanford went into a zone, which UCLA has not handled all that well this year. Usually the Bruins turn it up in the second half, but Stanford is awfully good (gee, Brook Lopez is remarkable). We'll see what happens.