Bruins beyond one dimension

Josh Shipp dropped a pass into the hands of Kevin Love, who happily took a wide-open three-point shot Saturday night. Love, a 6-foot-10 center who operates more comfortably a little closer to the basket, missed by a mile in UCLA’s 76-48 victory over UC Davis, but the freshman gave a thumbs up to Shipp.

As the fifth-ranked Bruins have negotiated the preseason while dealing with significant injuries to four of their top eight players, the loss of last season’s leading scorer, Arron Afflalo, and the arrival of consensus high school player of the year Kevin Love, they’ve also had to learn to become a team.

There have been early-season observations among fans that Shipp, a redshirt junior and the leading returning scorer, had sometimes seemed reluctant to pass the ball to Love, the highly publicized rookie.

But after Saturday’s victory, Shipp sat next to Love on a podium in an interview room and said the most important thing UCLA has accomplished so far is “becoming a team.” The Bruins, Shipp said, have jelled.

Later, standing alone outside UCLA’s locker room, the team’s other freshman, Chace Stanback, had a relevant observation on what has been his biggest lesson so far.

“This game isn’t about only one person,” Stanback said. “It’s all about team, and if one person thinks it’s all about themselves the team falls apart. Everybody here was the top guy in high school. I think we’ve all found out one thing so far. It’s all about the team.”

Stanback had a season-best seven points plus two steals in eight minutes against UC Davis.

His final basket was a celebratory dunk on an alley-oop pass from walk-on Matt Lee, and although Coach Ben Howland said he had tried to call off the score and couldn’t because of a hoarse voice, Howland said he was also happy to see Stanback and sophomore swingman Nikola Dragovic play productive minutes in the last game before conference play begins. Dragovic had five points and an assist in five minutes.

“What I’ve told both Chace and Nikola is that now we’re playing eight guys ahead of them,” Howland said, “but one of those guys or both of them most likely will be called upon to have to step up in tight, tough situations and be productive.”

Dragovic said he and Stanback speak on the bench about preparing for that occasion when foul trouble or injury might mean a command performance. “It’s going to happen,” Dragovic said.

Stanback, a 6-foot-6 swingman who averaged 25.8 points and 11.9 rebounds for Fairfax High last season, said learning to be a supportive substitute is not easy. “In high school everything is easy,” Stanback said. “Now it’s the grown men, and I have to learn patience.”

Howland has made a point of giving junior forward Alfred Aboya enthusiastic praise lately. Aboya had six points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal against UC Davis, but it is not numbers that excite Howland.

“Alfred Aboya came in and got us going,” Howland said. “His second time in the game is when we made our first initial push to get a lead. Even in the second half he comes in, his guy double-dribbles. Alfred just plays so darn hard, I get excited watching him.”

Howland also said he wasn’t concerned that guard Russell Westbrook had two first-half fouls and a third early in the second half against the Aggies.

“What we’re doing now is sending Russell to the glass, unleashing him on the offensive boards because he’s so good at going to get the ball,” Howland said. “That’s where he’s maybe going to get a foul or two we don’t want him to get.”

diane.pucin@latimes.com