Ironman Reeves Nelson plans to be at Exposition and Figueroa on Valentine's Day

Freshman forward Reeves Nelson, ready to return the favor this weekend at USC

UCLA's Nelson plans to play
By AL BALDERAS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Published: Feb. 9, 2010 9:00 p.m.

The freshman center says he has bounced back from concussion.

LOS ANGELES -- UCLA freshman Reeves Nelson said it took him a little more than 24 hours to shake off most of the symptoms from the concussion he suffered in last Saturday's loss to Cal.

There is no telling how long it will take before he's cleared to resume normal basketball activities. That would include his participation in Sunday's game at USC.

Nelson spent part of Monday on a stationary bicycle, and on Tuesday he was cleared to participate in two days' worth of non-contact practices.

Nelson bumped heads with Cal's Markhuri Sanders-Frison early in Saturday's game. Both players came out of the collision feeling a little dizzy but made a pact with each other to stay in the game.

"It was like my first one (head injury) so I was really weirded out by it," Nelson said. "I just knew something was off. I wasn't right at all. My balance was off."

Nelson finished the game but had just six points and two rebounds.

UCLA coach Ben Howland said that Nelson was given some concussion-related tests at halftime but that Nelson passed them. It was after the game that Nelson was diagnosed with the concussion.

Howland watched the incident on film and didn't see a violent collision but he has been around long enough to know that the impact doesn't always tell the story.

"It just looked like he bumped someone's head," Howland said. "I didn't think it was overly ... I remember when Luc M'bah a Moute had a concussion a couple of years ago in the 'SC game in '08. He had one that was really severe. He couldn't remember anything after the game. He hit his head into a chest.

"By looking at it, you wouldn't think it was ... so you can't tell just by a look."

Now that he has experienced his first concussion, Nelson said he might think twice about remaining in the game.

Or will he? Though he still needs to be medically cleared before he can play on Sunday, he was already making plans to be in the lineup.

"I'm definitely going to play no matter what," Nelson said.

MOTIVATION FACTOR

An embarrassing loss can carry a team a long way. The Bruins responded to their 67-46loss to USC on Jan. 16 by winning four of their next six games.

Now they're hoping that last Saturday's 14-point loss to Cal, a game which the Bruins once led by 14 points, can translate into another big push.

This one would start Sunday against USC.

"We looked at the scoreboard and had a (14-) point lead early," sophomore guard Malcolm Lee said of the loss to Cal. "I think our intensity and aggressiveness just faded away a little bit. That's what I had a sense of. I don't know if my teammates had a sense of it but that's what I felt."

Senior Michael Roll sensed the same thing.

"You can't let up," Roll said. "You can't play hard for 10 minutes, get a big lead and then for the next 10 minutes be happy with it."

In the loss to USC, the Bruins never had the lead. They remember that game just as clearly as the loss to Cal.

"We got whooped so this week we're going to prepare for it and try to remember (USC guard) Dwight Lewis going off on us (with 24 points)," Roll said. "We're going to have to keep an eye on (forward) Nikola Vucevic. He had a good game last game. We're going to have to be ready for everything they throw."