Two conference titles sound better than one

It doesn’t sound as if UCLA is faking it. The Bruins really want to add the Pacific 10 Conference tournament title to their regular-season championship.

The third-ranked Bruins (28-3) have been picked by nearly every NCAA tournament bracket forecaster for a No. 1 seeding in the NCAA tournament’s West Region -- thus playing in Anaheim and, if the Bruins win there twice, in Phoenix.

There is still the conference tournament to be contested at Staples Center but isn’t that for all those other teams -- Arizona and Oregon and Arizona State on the bubble, or Washington and California, which can only advance to the NCAA tournament by winning four games and securing an automatic bid?

“Losing to Cal last year, I remember guys coming back from that game. It was painful, real painful,” Bruins guard Darren Collison said. “I don’t want that to happen again.”

It was a statement repeated by several UCLA players Tuesday, including senior Lorenzo Mata-Real, junior Josh Shipp and sophomore Russell Westbrook. Being eliminated by California in their first Pac-10 tournament game, in overtime, in front of a stunned crowd at Staples Center was embarrassing, deadening, forgettable.

Top-seeded UCLA on Thursday will play the winner of today’s game between No. 8-seeded Washington and No. 9 Cal.

“Losing to Cal last year hurt us bad with the seedings,” Collison said. “Yeah, we got back to the Final Four, but the fact was we could have had a No. 1 seed and we got a No. 2 seed after losing to Cal.”

Freshman center Kevin Love wasn’t part of the team that lost to the Bears, 76-69, last year, but he has his own motivation for playing well in the league tournament.

Love said that while watching and listening to the weekend-long debate on television and radio as to whether UCLA got lucky with officials’ calls late in its wins over Stanford and California he decided the Bruins have something to prove.

“All that does give us a little extra incentive,” Love said. “We’re always looking out for something else to keep us motivated, especially now when it comes to crunch time. Anything we can get, anything that we can dig up and post around the locker room would be good for us.”

Love paid particular attention to ESPN reporter Doug Gottlieb, who is from Tustin. “I’m not calling Gottlieb out,” Love said, “but he was saying UCLA didn’t deserve this and that, they didn’t deserve [Josh Shipp’s] shot, stuff like that.”

Shipp made an improbable shot, which appeared to come over the backboard and might have been against an NCAA rule, in the final seconds of UCLA’s 81-80 win over Cal.

UCLA Coach Ben Howland still won’t say that junior swingman Michael Roll is finished playing this season. Roll has missed the last two and a half months -- including the entire Pac-10 season -- because of an injured left foot.

When Howland spoke about Roll nearly a month ago, he said it was “very, very likely” that Roll was finished for the year. Tuesday, asked if Roll was officially done, Howland said, “No. He may have to step up and come back.”

The Bruins are ranked second nationally in rebounding margin. They outrebounded opponents by 9.2 a game. North Carolina is first with an 11.7 margin. And on the heels of a pair of games when four late calls seemed to favor UCLA, it’s worth noting the Bruins rank fourth nationally in fewest fouls called against them -- 14.3 a game.

Love was selected a first-team All-American by Sporting News as well as the United States Basketball Writers Assn. District IX player of the year. Love and Collison were on the all-district team along with eight other Pac-10 players, including USC’s O.J. Mayo. North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough, Kansas State’s Michael Beasley, Memphis’ Chris Douglas-Roberts and Texas’ D.J. Augustin joined Love on the Sporting News team.

Former UCLA coach John Wooden, 97, was released from a local hospital Tuesdy after a 12-day stay. Wooden suffered a broken left wrist and left collarbone after a fall at his Encino home Feb. 28.

According to Wooden’s son, the coaching legend left the hospital for a rehabilitation center. “He will do exercises two to three times daily,” Jim Wooden said. “As soon as his strength is back, we will get him home.”

Jim Wooden also said, “Dad had one of his better days today and would like to thank everyone for their kind thoughts.”

This had been Wooden’s third hospitalization in the last three years, all near or around NCAA tournament time. Two years ago, Wooden suffered from internal bleeding because of a stomach infection, and last year he had an adverse reaction to medication.

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diane.pucin@latimes.com