Saying he was ‘out of it,’ Love apologizes to team

Without offering an absolute explanation for what he called his “low energy level,” UCLA freshman Kevin Love promised he would not have another game in which his enthusiasm and focus seemed away from basketball, alluding to UCLA’s victory over Oregon last Saturday.

As point guard Darren Collison noted, it is the special player who can score 15 points with 11 rebounds and have his effort questioned.

“Actually he showed me he was a great player,” Collison said. “He had a bad game and had 15 and 11. He’s not perfect, though.”

Love said he talked with Bruins Coach Ben Howland and with his family afterward. “It wasn’t that I had a bad attitude,” Love said. “It was just one of those games where I was out of it and I have to apologize to the team about that because I shouldn’t let my actions affect my team.

“Another game like that is not going to happen. It’s not fair to me, not fair to my teammates, not fair to my coaches and not fair to fans.”

Fourth-ranked UCLA (24-3, 12-2) sets off on its final Pacific 10 Conference trip Thursday against Arizona State (17-9, 7-7) and then Sunday against Arizona (17-10, 7-7), trying to protect its one-game lead over Stanford atop the league standings.

In the first go-around, the Bruins beat the Sun Devils and Wildcats by a combined 55 points, but Love and his teammates are discovering that everything is different the second time.

“Teams scout you,” Love said. “They game-plan you, do everything they can to stop you. A lot of times now they’re leaving our [power forward] wide open, switching on me.”

Junior Josh Shipp, who has missed his last 20 three-point attempts, went to the gym Tuesday morning and took 285 shots. Howland watched because, the coach said, “Some of [the slump] is my poor coaching. He wasn’t doing enough repetitions. Today was a really good step back in the right direction.”

Howland said Shipp made 200 of the 285 attempts.

Shipp said he could find no fault with his mechanics, but the misses have bothered him.

“It definitely gets frustrating, but you can’t let it get to you,” he said. “You’re a shooter, just shoot it. I saw myself passing up shots against Oregon I would have taken early on. I have to find a balance between the game and the mental aspect.”

The players said they do not pay attention to various websites that try to predict NCAA tournament seedings and bracketing.

“It’s a waste of time,” Collison said. “Check it right now and you think you’re a one-seed and you end up being a two-seed. It doesn’t matter.”

Collison said it does matter where teams play the tournament games.

For the last two years, UCLA has made it to the Final Four without having to leave California. This year the Bruins could advance by winning two games in Anaheim and two more in Phoenix. UCLA was second-seeded last year and played top-seeded Kansas in San Jose, and Collison said Jayhawks guard Mario Chalmers wasn’t happy about that.

“Mario said we played them at home and that’s why we won,” Collison said.

Love said the Bruins have been aiming at the Western road to the Final Four in San Antonio since the first team meeting.

“Before our first practice,” Love said, “it was the first thing addressed. We want to be a No. 1 seed, we want to win the Pac-10, stay close to home, stay in Phoenix, stay in Anaheim first and hopefully make our way to San Antonio.”

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diane.pucin@latimes.com