Kevin Love received some backlash from fans for dropping out of his spring quarter classes and damaging UCLA's score in the APR, the system that the NCAA uses to measure academic progress from every sport at every Division I university. According to UCLA coach Ben Howland, that criticism is unwarranted.
Some wondered why Love didn't drop his classes sooner to avoid taking incompletes if he knew he was going to the NBA anyway, but Howland said Love remained in school as long as he did in case of a freak injury that might have negatively impacted his draft status.
"I wanted to keep the option open for as long as possible for the pure chance something would happen like what happened to Brandon Rush," Howland said. "You don't want to force a kid to leave college because you're trying to save a point on the APR."
UCLA received a 968 in the APR this year, well above the 925 cutoff line where teams can start losing scholarships as penalty. That score will take a hit with the early departures of Love and Westbrook, a circumstance that Howland believes needs to be tweaked.
"At the programs that are going to lose guys early to the NBA, you're still penalized for that, and I don't know if that's necessarily fair," Howland said. "It's a little unrealistic to penalize schools for kids who are going to go do that."

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