Wooden is finally back at home

Former UCLA coach John Wooden, 97, has returned home for the first time since suffering a broken left wrist and left collarbone Feb. 29.

Wooden was released from a local hospital March 11 and spent the past 12 days in a rehabilitation facility. Wooden fell at his Encino condominium sometime during the night of Feb. 28 after watching a UCLA game on television.

This is the third consecutive year he has been hospitalized during a similar period of NCAA tournament play.

Two years ago, it was because of a stomach condition that caused internal bleeding. Last year he had a bad reaction to medication he was taking for the stomach condition.

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No escape

Just because the Bruins were given the close-to-home games at the Honda Center doesn’t mean the team hasn’t had commuting issues. UCLA’s team was four minutes late for Wednesday’s mandatory media sessions after dealing with heavy traffic between Westwood and Anaheim.

Friday, after the team practiced at Anaheim Servite High, they came out to find a broken-down bus. The local hotel where UCLA is staying sent shuttles to take the players back to the hotel, where they caught another bus to the Honda Center.

Coach Ben Howland drove Kevin Love, Josh Shipp and Darren Collison to the arena, where they were scheduled for media availability.

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Sneak preview

Love said Howland has told the team not to watch other NCAA tournament games on television, especially those involving teams in the West Regional. But Love confessed he couldn’t help but take a peek at some highlights.

“San Diego beat Connecticut, right?” Love said Friday. “And Belmont had three shots to beat Duke and missed them. You can’t miss those shots.”

Connecticut was seeded fourth in UCLA’s regional, and Duke, which escaped with a 71-70 victory over 15th-seeded Belmont on Thursday, is seeded second in the regional.

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Works both ways

Doesn’t Stanford have to stop Marquette too?

Yes.

“Our whole mentality is attacking them and have them have to guard what we do,” Marquette forward Dan Fitzgerald said.

Marquette has three guards who average double figures in points: Jerel McNeal’s (14.5), Dominic James (13) and Wesley Matthews (11.2).

“We got a day and a half to try to inject some speed in some of our guys,” Stanford Coach Trent Johnson said after his team’s win Thursday.

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Upsetting

Stanford’s Robin Lopez said he did a double take when he heard sixth-seeded USC had lost to 11th-seeded Kansas State in a first-round Midwest Regional game Thursday.

“I was pretty surprised, but it’s tournament time,” Lopez said. “Anything can happen. I definitely thought they could surprise some people. They were playing really well in conference.”

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diane.pucin@latimes.com

chris.dufresne@latimes.com