Love is first-team All-America choice

UCLA freshman Kevin Love was named first-team All-American by the Associated Press on Monday, and Bruins point guard Darren Collison was chosen to the third team.

Love, a 6-foot-10, 270-pound center who averages 17.6 points and 10.7 rebounds a game, was Pacific 10 Conference player of the year. About this time last year, he was honored as the Gatorade national high school player of the year.

The All-America recognition, he said, “is right up there, this accolade. I’ve had quite a few in my career but this ranks up there.”

North Carolina junior forward Tyler Hansbrough and Kansas State freshman forward Michael Beasley were both unanimous selections to the team, which, for the first time, had no seniors. Guards Chris Douglas-Roberts, a junior from Memphis, and D.J. Augustin, a sophomore from Texas, also made the first team.

Hansbrough and Beasley each received 360 points and were named on all 72 ballots cast by votes from media members.

Augustin received 346 points. Love had 318 points in becoming UCLA’s second first-team pick in two years -- Arron Afflalo received the same honor last year. Douglas-Robert had 309 votes. Love and Douglas-Roberts will be on the court Saturday when their teams face each other in the NCAA Final Four.

Heading up the second team was Notre Dame sophomore center Luke Harangody, who came in sixth in the voting with 211 points. Also on the second team were three seniors -- Shan Foster of Vanderbilt, D.J. White of Indiana and Roy Hibbert of Georgetown -- and sophomore Stephen Curry, who led Davidson to the Midwest Regional final.

Joining Collison on the third team were Stanford’s sophomore center Brook Lopez and guards Chris Lofton, a Tennessee senior, and freshmen Derrick Rose of Memphis and Eric Gordon of Indiana.

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Collison, who was Jordan Farmar’s backup two years ago when UCLA beat Memphis, 50-45, in the West Regional final, said he felt that win was a national reputation-maker for UCLA. “It was one of the games that identified us as a defensive team,” Collison said.

A hot topic concerning Saturday’s game with Memphis is whom the 6-foot Collison might defend. Rose is 6-3 and Douglas-Roberts is 6-6.

“It’s not a big deal to me,” Collison said. “The size difference is almost always a factor with any player I’m going against.”

UCLA Coach Ben Howland has called Collison perhaps the best on-ball point guard defender in the country this year.

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One area where UCLA has been outperformed by opponents this season is bench scoring.

UCLA reserves average 12.4 points a game and opponents average 14.8.

For UCLA, that is an average of 16.9% of its points compared to opponents getting 25.6% of their points from non-starters.

Even in UCLA’s 76-57 West Regional final win over Xavier, a game that wasn’t close most of the second half, the only bench scoring came from freshman Chace Stanback on an unguarded three-point shot with 37 seconds left in the game.

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Though he has missed six games this season because of injuries, junior Luc Richard Mbah a Moute has 105 career starts, more than any other current Bruins player. . . . Collison has made 83 of his last 92 free throws.

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diane.pucin@latimes.com