Bruins have Devils on minds

For the first time since 1995, UCLA received a No. 1 seeding in an NCAA men’s basketball regional. That’s also the last time the Bruins won a national championship.

UCLA (31-3) will play No. 16 Mississippi Valley State on Thursday about 7:30 p.m. at the Honda Center in Anaheim in the first round, and Bruins Coach Ben Howland’s immediate reaction was serious and predictable.

“We just don’t want to be the first team in the history of the tournament where the 16 seed beats the 1 seed,” Howland said. “That is going to happen. We just hope it doesn’t happen on Thursday in Anaheim.”

The Bruins were rated as the third of the four No. 1 teams and will play Memphis, top-seeded in the South Region, in the national championship semifinals in San Antonio on April 5 if both teams advance.

UCLA beat Memphis in the West Regional final two years ago to advance to its first of two consecutive Final Four appearances. North Carolina in the East and Kansas in the Midwest received the other two top seedings.

Duke received the No. 2 seeding in the West, with Xavier third and Connecticut fourth. If UCLA wins its first-round game, the Bruins will play the winner of a game against No. 8 Brigham Young and No. 9 Texas A&M;, two teams they beat last year in the regular season, on Saturday.

It was left to freshman center Kevin Love to scan the rest of the tournament bracket and lock onto the potential glamour game of the West Regional -- the matchup with Duke and its star freshman Kyle Singler.

Love, from Lake Oswego, and Singler, from South Medford, played each other twice for the Oregon high school state championship. Love’s team won the first time, Singler’s team last season.

“I swear the NCAA committee, they do that on purpose,” Love said. “I was calling it for two weeks. We were going to be the No. 1 seed and Duke the No. 2 in the West. I’m not supposed to be looking that far ahead, but I do see it down the road. That would be a fun game to play in. I’ve always dreamed of playing Duke.”

The rest of the Bruins, the veterans such as senior Lorenzo Mata-Real and juniors Josh Shipp and Darren Collison who have been part of UCLA’s last two Final Four teams, adopted Howland’s more singularly focused attitude.

“It’s the playoffs now,” Shipp said. “Nothing is easy in the playoffs, upsets happen all the time. Sure, we have the No. 1 seed, but that doesn’t prove anything. We have to prove we deserve it.”

Less than half an hour after the draw was revealed, Howland said his staff had three game tapes of the Delta Devils, who won the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament, 11 tapes on BYU and 27 on Texas A&M.;

He was also prepared to speak about nearly every other team in the region. Howland pointed out he thought Joe Alexander, a 6-8 junior forward who has averaged 29.8 points over the last five games for seventh-seeded West Virginia, “might be the hottest player in the country.” He said he voted for fourth-seeded Connecticut’s 7-foot-3 sophomore center Hasheem Thabeet as the best defensive player in the country. “He’s the best shot blocker,” Howland said.

He said Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski is the most successful college coach currently in the game.

“And Duke presents a lot of matchup problems because of the fact they are so athletic at the wing position, they space the floor, they don’t really play with a [center], it’s almost like a Phoenix Suns-type thing,” Howland said.

Howland also mentioned Connecticut, a top-seeded team two years ago that trailed No. 16 Albany by 12 points in the second half before rallying to win, 72-59. That’s something Love said he’s sure will be brought up this week. “Absolutely.”

Of the four No. 1s, Howland noted that UCLA had played the most games against other NCAA tournament teams -- 16. The Bruins are 14-2 against the field, North Carolina is 9-1, Memphis 6-1 and Kansas 8-2.

“I just think our team has played the toughest schedule, in my opinion,” Howland said. “Playing that many teams in the tournament, night in, night out, we have played the toughest schedule however you want to look at it.”

Bruins forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who sprained his left ankle against USC on Friday night and sat out the Pacific 10 Conference tournament championship game against Stanford, was off crutches Sunday.

The junior said he was feeling “much better” and said he expected to play if UCLA reaches the second round Saturday and hoped to play as soon as Thursday.

Love, who suffered a pulled lower back muscle against Stanford, said he was still sore but expected to be fully ready by Thursday.

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diane.pucin@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

First look

* How they advanced: UCLA (31-3, 16-2) won the Pacific 10 Conference regular-season title, finishing three games ahead of second-place Stanford, and the league tournament title by beating California, 88-66, in the quarterfinals, USC, 57-54, in the semifinals, and Stanford, 67-64, in the championship game. UCLA carries a 10-game winning streak into the tournament.

Mississippi Valley State (17-15, 12-6) finished second to Alabama State in the Southwestern Athletic Conference regular-season standings and earned the conference’s automatic NCAA bid by winning the conference tournament with a 79-73 win over Grambling State, a 70-59 win over Arkansas Pine Bluff, and a 59-58 win over Jackson State in championship game. The Delta Devils lost their first eight games this season but have won nine in a row.

* Common opponent: Washington State. UCLA beat the Cougars twice, 81-74 at Pauley Pavilion and 67-59 in Pullman. Washington State beat Mississippi Valley State, 71-26, in Pullman. The Delta Devils were 0 for 15 from three-point range in that game and shot 27.9% from the field.

* When UCLA has the ball: The Bruins will try to dominate the Delta Devils with their inside-out game and take advantage of the strength and passing skills of 6-10, 265-pound freshman center Kevin Love. Love will face 6-10, 225-pound senior Larry Cox, who averages 12.4 points and 8.0 rebounds, and has 50 blocked shots and 50 turnovers.

* When Mississippi Valley State has the ball: Forward Carl Lucas, a 6-5 senior, is the leading scorer for the Delta Devils (12.7 ppg) and was named most valuable player in the SWAC tournament. The strength of the team is its interior game.

* What to expect: UCLA will make it tough for the Delta Devils to score against its switching man-to-man defense. Point guard Darren Collison will apply ferocious ball pressure from the start and the Bruins won’t worry about what Mississippi Valley State might do. The Delta Devils have a Los Angeles connection -- 5-8 senior guard Mike Davis lettered two years at Verbum Dei before playing at Panola (Texas) Junior College and then transferring to Mississippi Valley State. Davis has played in all 32 games this year and averages 2.4 points.

* Stat factor: The Delta Devils averaged fewer points than their opponents (65.8 to 62.7), were outrebounded (35.2 to 33.5) and outshot from the field (44.2% to 40.6%). They did, however, make a better percentage of three-pointers (34.6% to 31.3%). UCLA has outscored its opponents (74.1-59.1), outrebounded opponents (36.1-27.7) and shot better from the field (47.8% to 43.0%) and from three-point range (34.5% to 33.5%).

-- Diane Pucin

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HOW THEY COMPARE

How Miss. Valley State, UCLA compare:

*--* MVS -- UCLA 62.7 POINTS 74.1 40.6 FIELD-GOAL PCT. 47.8 68.1 FREE-THROW PCT. 73.1 34.6 THREE-POINT PCT. 34.5 37.3 REBOUNDS 38.9 *--*

*--* MISS. VALL. ST. P HT CL Pts Reb Ast Carl Lucas F 6-5 Sr. 12.7 5.5 0.9 Larry Cox C 6-10 Sr. 12.4 8.0 0.2 Stanford Speech G 6-3 Sr. 10.8 3.8 2.6 Chris Watson F 6-6 Sr. 8.2 4.2 0.7 Michael Clark G 6-2 Jr. 8.0 2.2 1.4 Eric Petty F 6-6 Jr. 6.2 4.3 0.5 D. Harmason G 5-11 Jr. 4.9 2.2 2.9 Wayne Parks II G 6-3 Sr. 2.5 1.1 0.4 Mike Davis G 5-8 Sr. 2.4 1.2 2.4 Steven Kite Jr. G 6-3 Fr. 2.0 0.4 0.2 Orlando Smith F 6-5 Fr. 1.9 1.6 0.2 Joseph Reed C 6-8 Jr. 1.4 1.1 0.2 Michael Higgins G-F 6-3 Sr. 1.2 1.2 0.1 Donald Prichard G 6-1 Fr. 0.4 0.0 0.2 Julius Love F 6-3 Sr. 0.1 0.3 0.0 Alfred Clark G 6-0 So. 0.0 0.5 0.0 *--*

*--* UCLA P HT CL Pts Reb Ast Kevin Love C 6-10 Fr. 17.1 10.6 1.9 Darren Collison G 6-0 Jr. 15.2 2.7 3.9 Josh Shipp G-F 6-5 Jr. 13.0 3.2 2.3 R. Westbrook G 6-3 So. 12.6 3.8 4.3 Mbah a Moute F 6-8 Jr. 8.8 5.4 1.5 L. Mata-Real C 6-9 Sr. 3.2 3.6 0.2 Alfred Aboya F-C 6-9 Jr. 3.1 2.3 0.3 Michael Roll G-F 6-5 Jr. 2.8 1.7 2.3 Nikola Dragovic F 6-9 So. 2.3 1.3 0.1 James Keefe F 6-8 So. 2.1 2.2 0.2 Chace Stanback G-F 6-8 Fr. 1.8 0.7 0.3 M. Abdul-Hamid G 6-2 So. 1.1 0.2 0.5 Matt Lee G 6-0 Sr. 0.5 0.1 0.4 Joey Ellis G 6-2 Jr. 0.0 0.0 0.0 David McGrath G 6-4 Jr. 0.0 0.0 0.0 D. Robinson G 6-5 Jr. 0.0 0.2 0.0 *--*