Might not be much more of him to love

Sorry for the downer, but have you looked at the UCLA schedule?

If Kevin Love is a one-year player, he has four games left in Pauley Pavilion.

UCLA is steamrollering the Pacific 10 Conference and Love is looking more confident at every turn, this time with a 26-point, 11-rebound outing in an 82-60 victory over what until Saturday was a hot Arizona team.

But the season is rapidly evaporating, and Love has noticed.

“I really can’t believe it,” he said. “It’s funny you say that, I was thinking about that yesterday. I was thinking, ‘Tomorrow, we’re halfway through the Pac-10.’ It’s really crazy to me. But the second half is where it all counts. It’s about how you finish, not how you start. So hopefully we’ll win the Pac-10 outright and end up in San Antonio somehow.”

There’s a reasonable assumption, even within the UCLA coaching staff, that Love is a one-year player. If nobody left early, the Bruins would be over the scholarship limit for next season after signing four players, so they’re expecting Love and/or Darren Collison to be gone.

“It’s really going to depend on what the team does, but right now, I’m a Bruin,” Love said. “We’re going to sit down after the season and assess my options, but we have a great recruiting class coming in next year. I was talking to the coaches the other day. . . . If we have everybody back next year, it could be a scary team.”

His father, Stan Love, seemed to add credence to the UCLA postseason’s having an effect on his son’s decision.

“It’s hard to say,” he said. “We’ll see how we do in the Pac-10 tournament and then in the NCAA tournament.”

It’s part of an annual game that has become as fruitless a guessing game as who the No. 1-seeded teams will be: Will they stay or will they go?

Plenty of people thought Arizona’s Chase Budinger would be one and done. Now he’s a still-learning sophomore.

“I didn’t think I was mature enough,” Budinger said. “I didn’t think I was ready on the court and off the court. You’re still just a kid. I like college. I have no problems with college. I think it’s fun. So I’m in no rush.”

And who is ready for the NBA, anyway? It’s general managers who decide.

Arizona interim Coach Kevin O’Neill -- a former NBA coach -- sees things a little differently than some. And although he complimented Love -- a potential NBA ‘tweener at something less than the 6 feet 10 he is listed at -- it was guard Russell Westbrook who caught his eye.

“I think all those assumptions about all these guys -- to me, maybe the best pro prospect out there tonight is Westbrook,” O’Neill said.

“When I look at the guys who would fit in the NBA. I think there a lot of guys on that court that will be NBA players. But in terms of where do you fit, what is your skill, that’s a tough nut to crack.

“I haven’t seen [Love] or been around him enough to know who he is or what he is. I just know the next level is a hard level for everybody.

“I mean, he plays hard and he’s got a lot of good things going for him. I don’t know what position fits in the NBA. You go to the NBA, you have to have a position, you have to have a skill, and be in the right place at the right time. There has to be a need for your position or your skill. The good thing is you only need one GM who likes you. You don’t need all the girls to like you, just one.”

Westbrook, the rapidly emerging sophomore, turned O’Neill’s head.

“I think he’s going to be a very explosive player, he’s going to be a great defender and his shot looks like he can really improve. I mean that I think he’s got a good stroke. Right now, you wouldn’t call him a lights-out shooter, but I think he’ll become a very, very good shooter. What year is he, sophomore? He’s going to be a heck of a player.”

Whether Love will become a sophomore, well, wait and see.

“He loves school. He loves UCLA,” Stan Love said. “So it’s hard to say, really.

“I think the rule should be two years, so they stay automatically two years so the coaches don’t have to recruit so much.

“From a maturity standpoint too, you don’t want to run around with a bunch of multi-millionaires when you’re only 19. I mean, sounds like fun to me, but . . . “

One thing there isn’t much debate about is that Love is having fun, walking off the court with a grin and a wave to Bruins fans a week after conquering the jilted fans in Oregon, his home state.

Donny Daniels, the UCLA assistant who works with the big men, raves about the kind of teammate Love is.

“He’s not a black hole,” he said, talking about Love’s propensity for passing. “He’s unselfish. He’s a great teammate.”

He’s a great teammate who at home has a national player-of-the-year trophy that was also won by LeBron James, Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant. That makes things a little different, the UCLA coaches knew going in. But maybe he wants something those players don’t have.

“I want to win a national championship. That’s the bottom line,” Love said. “We’re up at the Washington schools next week and every game is a steppingstone. . . .

“I haven’t been thinking about the next level at all.

“If it comes, it comes. As of right now, I’m just a Bruin.”

robyn.norwood@latimes.com