With Valentine's Day only a Week Away...

...its time to talk about Love.

But before I get into the post, I just want to say thanks to everybody that sent well wishes, comments, emails, phone calls, and thoughts out to me during my crazy trip. It definitely helped me get through a lot of down time that I had on the road. I also have received a lot of support for this blog (inspirational support, not financial support unfortunately), so the blogging will continue. Please utilize the comments area freely. Everybody else's thoughts and opinions only makes this bizarre interface all the more vibrant.

Interestingly, I've gotten positive feedback from two people whose opinions I honestly care about. One faithful reader, a 5'2" beauty and Greenwich Village resident, has mentioned that I should keep posting as long as I keep the sports posts to a minimum. The other, a cartoon "tracer" living in Hollywood, put no such limitations on me, so unfortunately this post is likely just for the fellas and more specifically the UCLA lads.

(Note: Sorry, kid. I promise to put together a post soon that summarizes what I think about Gavin Newsom's affair (sleeping with your bro's wife?? come on Mr. Mayor!) and whether I think Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minillo (filipina...holla) will get married.)

(Note II: Insomnia update-Its 3:23am. I went to sleep at 9:30 last night and woke up wide awake at about 2:45am. In the past, crazy jet lag recovery has made me want to walk on Geary Street and stab every other person I see, but this time its not so bad. I think I caught up on about 5 years of sleep when I was in Kabul. Who knew a ravaged war-torn city would be like a spa retreat in Napa.)

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about Love. And not The Notebook/Say Anything/English Patient kind of love, but UCLA basketball recruit, Kevin Love. (That sound you just heard is every non-UCLA hoops fan instantaneously clicking to another webpage.)

The hype machine surrounding this 6'9" high school senior from Oregron is unbelievable. I've heard tv analysts call him the best UCLA big man recruit since Bill Walton, and the best skilled center in the country, and that UCLA coach (and my homeboy) Ben Howland cried when Love signed his Letter of Intent. Unfortunately, I've only seen a couple of clips on youtube and read a bunch of articles on the kid. Apparently he's the real deal. My enthusiasm for Love is a bit tempered based on the laundry list of "can't miss" prospects that have come through Westwood and "missed" worse than a Lo Mata free throw. See O'mma Givens, Michael Fey, and Ced Bozeman (do the last six weeks of his career of good play outweigh 4 years of ineptitude?) in recent years.

Also, high school highlights are insanely hard to gauge how one's skills will translate at the next level. I clearly remember highlights of Darnell Robinson from Emeryville absolutely destroying all the Mormons and future Ivy Leaguers that the East Bay had to offer back in 1993 and him becoming an absolute stiff at Arkansas (89-78 ring any bells?). Off the top of my head, high school highlights of Reggie Bush and LeBron James are rare examples that show high schoolers absolutely tooling opponents in the same way that they continued to do immediately at the next level. The point is these highlights can be faulty. Obviously the jury is still out on Love, but all arrows seem to point to a potential that's absolutely through the roof. He can shoot it from midrange to the arc, has multiple post moves, great passer, works hard on defense (most important under our current regime), and has a high basketball I.Q. (Jay Bilas and others love this label-probably just means he doesn't shoot turnaround 20 footers or throw the ball to the other team too much. It also sounds a bit racist also.)

The most interesting analysis of his game that I have heard repeatedly from friends, bloggers, and commentators alike, is Kevin Love's ability to make good outlet passes. Uhhhh...what? That is the most random aspect of one's game to dissect since the days when the FSN guys used to rave that UCLA Center Dan Gadzuric was the fastest player on the team. Gadzuric's speed may be handy if he's planning on stealing pizzas from the Shakey's delivery guy in Westwood or trying to win a potato sack race or something, but how this translates into success for a big man on the basketball court is beyond me, especially for somebody whose hands were made of stone. It definitely didn't prevent him from going for a blocked shot any time a player did an eye brow fake on him and he ended up hacking the crap out of everyone in the Pac-10.

Back to Love and his Hall-of-Fame ability to rebound the ball and through it quickly to a teammate. Fascinating. Don't get me wrong, this could easily frustrate opponents next year with the useful speed of Darren Collison, Russell Westbrook, and Arron Afflalo (hopefully he stays one more yr) getting out in front for easy transition buckets, but I would prefer to hear that his post moves are reminiscent of Hakeem, or he is a defensive force like David Robinson. Like I said, I haven't seen much of him at all, and maybe this outlet passing thing is something to behold.

I just hope he remotely lives up to the hype and becomes a solid contributor next year. Having the immediate Frosh impact similar to Carmelo Anthony, Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, and Tyler Hansborough would not be bad either.