Keefe got all the calls . . . after the game

PHOENIX -- James Keefe generated big numbers Thursday night.

Sure, the 6-foot-8 UCLA sophomore had career highs of 18 points and 12 rebounds against Western Kentucky, but the biggest numbers came after the game.

As in number of text and phone messages received.

“I didn’t count them,” the former Santa Margarita High star said Friday, “but it was a lot. A whole lot.”

Keefe surmised that some were from old friends he’d lost touch with. “I didn’t recognize their numbers, so I’m going to have to go back and figure out who they were,” he said.

And what about the thousands of UCLA fans who spent much of the second half chanting his name? “Keeeeefe.”

He’d never received that kind of star treatment even in high school.

“It was great,” he said. “I definitely heard them.”

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Keefe seemed to be as happy for his family and friends as he was for himself as he recounted his best college game.

“Everyone who has been real supportive of me all season was waiting for a break-out game, so it was a great feeling,” he said.

Keefe is averaging 8.0 points and 6.7 rebounds in three tournament games, and has 33 points and 30 rebounds in 105 postseason minutes compared to 32 points and 34 rebounds in 163 minutes during the regular season.

He has been on an emotional roller coaster. Keefe expected to redshirt while recovering from shoulder surgery, then was pressed into action, then languished through a stretch in which he played only 23 minutes in a span of five Pacific 10 Conference games.

“That was definitely a hard time,” he recalled, “but it’s history now. It was definitely all worth it.”

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UCLA forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute knows he will play with pain for however long the Bruins’ season lasts. After spraining his left ankle two weeks ago in the Pac-10 tournament, and after sitting out two games and then playing two games, Mbah a Moute wore a protective boot Friday and walked with a limp.

But, he said, “My ankle is great, feels really good. It is not swollen.” He called the boot “precautionary,” but later said the injury was still painful.

“I’m 85-90%,” he said. “It’s something I’m going to have for the rest of the tournament. I’ve got to play through it.”

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Xavier sophomore Derrick Brown went to high school in Dayton, Ohio, but was born in Oakland, where he lived until he was 10 and where his father still resides.

Brown said he’s always paid attention to the Pac-10 and that he was recruited by California and Stanford.

“I’ve still got a little West Coast in me,” he said.

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UCLA Coach Ben Howland tried to recruit Xavier point guard Drew Lavender to play for him at Pittsburgh out of high school.

Lavender instead chose Oklahoma, where he played before transferring, but he recalled Friday that Howland was “a nice guy” with a reputation for being patient with players who made mistakes.

“All the guys that played with him said he was real laid back,” Lavender said.

To which UCLA players might ask, “Is there another coach named Ben Howland?”

Lavender liked Pittsburgh, but chose Oklahoma after some sole-searching.

“Pitt was an Adidas school and I played for a Nike AAU team so I was trying to go to a Nike school,” he said.

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Xavier Coach Sean Miller, formerly an All-Big East guard at Pittsburgh, spoke glowingly of Howland on Friday, saying the job he had done as Pitt’s coach before coming to UCLA was “remarkable.”

He also recalled his reaction as a Pitt alumnus when he heard his school had hired a coach from Northern Arizona.

“I thought the people at Pitt were confused,” Miller deadpanned. “I wondered what they were thinking.”

Now, in retrospect?

“That choice was one of the all-time great choices when you think about what that hire meant to that university and their basketball program,” Miller said.

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