Love practices; Mbah a Moute doesn’t

UCLA Coach Ben Howland had a seven-minute conference call Tuesday afternoon, just enough time to report that freshman center Kevin Love participated fully in practice and seemed to be “in pretty good spirits,” and that junior forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute did not practice because of a school exam.

Love suffered a pulled back muscle early in the Bruins’ 67-64 Pacific 10 Conference tournament win over Stanford on Saturday. Mbah a Moute sat out that game because of a sprained left ankle.

Howland said Mbah a Moute went to the gym after the exam and was “downstairs trying to move around a little bit, doing a little light shooting.”

As to whether Mbah a Moute will play in top-seeded UCLA’s first-round NCAA game against No. 16-seeded Mississippi Valley State on Thursday at the Honda Center, Howland said, “If he’s able to go we’ll play him on Thursday.”

Howland seemed to mean he would not sit out Mbah a Moute strictly as a precautionary measure because it is assumed the Bruins won’t have trouble with Mississippi Valley State. The coach was a bit more expansive on what he has learned about the opponent, the Delta Devils from the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

“Primarily they’re man-to-man defense,” he said. “Offensively, they’ll push it and if it’s not there, they will be patient. They have a good big kid inside in [Larry] Cox who can shoot the ball around the basket, who is long and athletic, and older guys, juniors and seniors for the most part.

“They’ve got two little point guards who can both handle the ball and penetrate with it and they actually have a lot of guys who can score that we have to be aware of.”

Cox, a senior who is 6 feet 10 and 225 pounds, averages 12.4 points and 8.0 rebounds.

The other top scorers are 6-5, 210-pound senior forward Carl Lucas, who averages 12.7 points, and 6-3, 215-pound senior guard Stanford Speech, who averages 10.8 points.

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The Bruins will practice at Pauley Pavilion this morning before going to Anaheim for news conferences and the NCAA-mandated open practice. UCLA will practice from 5:10 p.m. to 5:50 p.m. Mississippi Valley State will practice from 6:40 p.m. to 7:20 p.m.

Howland says he is not a fan of the open practices.

“You can’t have a real practice or work on any kind of strategic stuff because other teams can scout you,” he said. “You get used to the facility but that’s always a minor thing.”

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There are two ticket sessions for games Thursday at the Honda Center. The first has Marquette playing Kentucky at 11:30 a.m., followed by Stanford against Cornell. The NCAA requires all spectators to vacate the building and re-enter for the second session, which has Brigham Young- Texas A&M; at 4:25 p.m., followed by UCLA-Mississippi Valley State.

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diane.pucin@latimes.com