UCLA's Kevin Love: Fact & fiction

This article is from Diane Pucin from the LATIMES.COM
We are sorry for using the entire article but we found it to be a great article. Fiction: Kevin Love can lift a horse.

Fact: Love can't even ride them. He leaves that to his eighth-grade sister Emily, a budding equestrian star. But Kevin says he'll have to make money playing basketball to feed Emily's horse. Hands down, UCLA fans; there's certainly an NCAA rule that says free oats are a violation.

Fiction: Love is making 90% of his free throws. He said he would. "I'd like to make at least 90% from the line," Love said on media day last fall.

Fact: Love is shooting 76.4% from the foul line. Not bad for a center. Third-best among UCLA starters.

Fiction: Love is fat. Roly-poly. Barely able to huff and puff his way up and down the court. That's what opposing fans and even some media suggested after watching Love on television.

Fact: With a little work in the UCLA weight room and a season of playing Ben Howland defense, Love played all 20 minutes of the second half in UCLA's 88-78 win over frantically pressing Western Kentucky in a West Regional semifinal. Fat guys can't do that.

Fiction: Love leaps tall hedges in a single bound.

Fact: Hedges are a defensive strategy that Howland loves and Love hated. At first. Now Love is an enthusiastic hedger -- meaning he'll spring from his spot guarding a big man under the basket.

Fiction: Love can throw a two-handed chest pass standing behind the baseline of one basket and through the basket on the other end of the court on the first try.

Fact: Sometimes it takes two or three attempts. Or sometimes he just hits the backboard. Whatever, it was the most interesting part of NCAA regional open practices. More than worth the (free) price of admission.

Fiction: Love, whose uncle Mike Love and cousin Brian Wilson helped make the Beach Boys one of the most popular bands in history, sings the Beach Boys anthem "Surfer Girl" in his sleep.

Fact: Love's favorite Beach Boys song is "Good Vibrations." "It's my dad who likes 'Surfer Girl,' " Kevin said. "I had to pick a different one."

Fiction: Love's room at his family's Lake Oswego, Ore., home is 2,000 square feet and filled with flat-screen TVs, leather recliners and a California king bed.

Fact: Kevin's room isn't much bigger than a California king closet with a double-sized mattress and no flat-screen TVs.

Fiction: Love eats snake.

Fact: That's what Howland once said of Love's teammate, Alfred Aboya, who is from Cameroon in West Africa. Aboya denied he eats snake. Love is partial to fettuccine alfredo prepared by his mother, Karen.

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Diane Pucin

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