No Masking Their Hurt

Junior Brandon Loyd and freshman Billy Knight, UCLA’s best two outside shooters, both recently have suffered broken noses, and both have decided to play without the plastic masks usually worn after such injuries.

Loyd, who broke his nose in an intrasquad game Nov. 9, decided from the outset that he didn’t want to wear the mask, and has played without one in UCLA’s two exhibition games.

Knight suffered the injury in practice almost two weeks ago, and played the first half of the Bruins’ Nov. 13 exhibition game against NBC-Thunder with a mask. After struggling, Knight discarded the mask for the second half.

“I felt tentative with the mask on,” said Knight, who doesn’t plan to wear the mask any longer. “I couldn’t really see. I felt I could be more aggressive without it.”