Forget about the inside jokes

Michael Roll is a UCLA junior swing player, a backup with a stoic demeanor, a streaky shot and an innate feel for the right time to make an entry pass that sneaks inside a defense and finds a big man in scoring position.

When Roll was a freshman, his passes to UCLA centers too often were dropped or stolen off the dribble.

Last year it was better. Roll aimed his entry passes for Lorenzo Mata-Real and Alfred Aboya. But while both are hardworking and willing to do the defensive work Coach Ben Howland demands, neither claims to be an offensive star.

Now there is Kevin Love.

While it would be shortsighted to say that UCLA’s chance to return to the Final Four for a third straight year or to win a third consecutive Pacific 10 Conference title depends on Love, the 6-foot-10, 265-pound freshman makes Howland smile almost every day.

“His outlet passes,” Howland raved about one day.

“He had the most rebounds,” Howland said on another.

“He was 15 of 25 from the floor,” the coach noticed.

“He got kneed in the calf three times and didn’t stop playing,” Howland recently noted with pride.

Josh Shipp, a redshirt junior who along with senior Mata-Real has been with Howland four years, gave a thoughtful analysis of Love the other day.

“The thing you’ve got to like about Kevin,” Shipp said, “he brings it every day in practice. He impresses me every day. The outlet pass, wow.”

Darren Collison, a junior point guard who was tempted by the NBA a year ago, came back in part to direct Howland’s motion offense with the option of a real center as the fulcrum.

“As a freshman,” Collison said, “you’re not supposed to get everything the way Kevin does. But he gets it.”

Collison, who has gained 10 pounds of muscle and says he took hundreds of shots a day to improve on his 44.7% three-point shooting, said there would be a trickle-down effect of Love’s game.

“It makes it a lot easier on everybody else,” Collison said. “Since I’ve been here, we’ve been mainly a guard team and it’s been real hard to get some easy buckets in transition because there has been so much focus on the best shooters. So when teams could, they would collapse on us and deny the perimeter.

“With Kevin bringing an inside presence, and with Lorenzo the senior he is, it takes the attention off. Defenders have to help down low. We’re such a good outside shooting team, it’s going to make it much more easy to get our shots.”

In the last two Final Fours, UCLA was eliminated by eventual national champion Florida. Each time, the Bruins were manhandled inside, and with little interior scoring, the drives and jump shots of Arron Afflalo (now a Detroit Piston), Collison and Shipp were squeezed off by the quick, strong double teams of Florida.

“We’ll be a much more physical team this year,” junior forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute said.

Mbah a Moute, who was Pac-10 freshman of the year two years ago, was slowed by nagging knee tendinitis last season and his scoring dropped.

Mbah a Moute’s summer program included a 12-week knee-strengthening program as well as time spent shortening his shooting stroke. Mbah a Moute also said he gained strength and aggressiveness while playing with the Cameroonian national team.

“The Pac-10 is going to be three times more physical,” Mbah a Moute said. “Maybe 10 times. The Pac-10 is a lot better than it was two years ago and last year. So we have to be a lot better, a lot more physical.”

Love has no trouble talking about the impact he wants to have on a program that was already in an upward progression. “You always want to be able to feed the post,” Love said. “And everybody knows how to feed the post. So that’s what I add.”

Love is also wise enough to understand that it might be his inspiring outlet passes or his soft jump shot that will make him popular with teammates, but it will be his defense that gets him on the floor.

“My offense is given,” Love said. “On defense, I have a lot to learn. For example, we didn’t do a lot of hedging in high school. I’ve got to stop worrying about only my man and start worrying about stepping out and hedging, whether it’s Darren or Russell [Westbrook], helping him into my guy.”

There are not modest expectations at UCLA this year. “I know every one of us expects to win the conference and do well in the tournament,” Collison said.

Said Shipp: “No one expects more of us than we do ourselves.”

And the freshman center who was the consensus high school player of the year last season?

He just wants perfection. “If I make 99 shots and miss one, I want to go back and start over,” Love said.

There is only one goal for a perfectionist who may be at UCLA for only a year or two before he can’t ignore the NBA:

“I think we all know why I came to UCLA,” Love said. “To win titles.”

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diane.pucin@latimes.com

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Scouting report

* They’re back: F Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, 6-8, Jr. (8.2 ppg, 7.4 rpg); F Josh Shipp, 6-5, Jr. (13.3 ppg., 3.9 rpg.); C Lorenzo Mata-Real, 6-9, Sr. (6.6 ppg, 5.4 rpg); G Darren Collison, 6-0, Jr. (12.7 ppg, 6.2 apg, 44.7% 3-pt).

* They’re new: C Kevin Love, 6-10, Fr., Lake Oswego (Ore.) HS; F Chace Stanback, 6-8, Fr., Los Angeles Fairfax HS.

* Last season: 30-6, first in Pacific 10 Conference; lost, 76-66, to Florida in NCAA semifinal.

* This season depends on: Staying healthy. Shipp has had two hip surgeries in two years, and sophomore James Keefe needs to recover from shoulder surgery to provide inside depth. Progression is another key. Sophomore guard Russell Westbrook will be relied on at both guard positions and will be the only regular backup for point guard Collison; freshman Love is the true center UCLA hasn’t had for two years.

* Offensively: The Bruins will always run motion under Coach Ben Howland, and the exquisite interior and outlet passing that makes Love the most highly touted freshman center in the country should make that motion more effective. Mbah a Moute worked hard on his perimeter shooting and could help make up the 17 points a game UCLA lost when Arron Afflalo left for the NBA.

* Defensively: The Bruins will play physical man-to-man defense every moment. Collison is considered one of the best defensive point guards in the country, and Howland says Mbah a Moute can guard any position on the court.

* X-factor: Westbrook is a talented offensive player who has gained strength and defensive confidence over the summer. He may not start, but he needs to play and score. And is Love as good as advertised?

-- Diane Pucin