New Bruin Lineup Is a Winner : Miller, Wilson Pace Rout of Stanford

The UCLA Bruins made some changes Friday night, and not all of them were expected:

(1) They won a Pacific 10 game.

(2) They unveiled another new starting lineup.

(3) They have one guy who was supposed to be red-shirting and isn’t and have another guy who wasn’t supposed to be red-shirting and now apparently is.

From top to bottom, it was a night of surprises at Pauley Pavilion, where the Bruins’ 95-75 blowout of Stanford probably ranked as one of the smaller ones.

After an 0-2 conference beginning, UCLA got its first victory, shown the way by Reggie Miller, who scored 23 points, and by freshman Trevor Wilson, who scored 22 points in 26 minutes, took down 9 rebounds and surprised almost everyone except his coach.

The Bruins also fielded their second new lineup in the last three games. Dave Immel started at guard in place of Montel Hatcher and was a success.

Immel sank 3 three-pointers in 5 attempts and came through with 15 points in 23 minutes.

Will he keep on scoring?

“I’m going to keep on attempting to score,� Immel said.

But as well as all the shuffling among his starters has worked out, Coach Walt Hazzard’s best move Friday night was Wilson, who came off the bench and turned on a crowd of 8,203 with a couple of dazzling offensive moves, one in each half.

The first, an underhanded flip, was strictly a playground move, which Wilson honed in Sherman Oaks. Where else, but on the playgrounds?

So what kind of shot was it?

“You mean the scoop thing?� Wilson asked.

Yeah.

“The scoop thing,� he said.

Oh.

One of Wilson’s idols is Julius Erving, which was evident when Wilson attempted his most celebrated move of the night.

That moment came in the second half, when Stanford was still lurking somewhere in Pauley, trailing, 67-50, with just under eight minutes left.

Wilson rebounded a missed shot by Bryan McSweeney, dribbled the length of the court and soared for a one-handed dunk that brought down the house.

So what was that called? The get-a rebound-coast-to-coast-slammer-supreme? No?

“The Julius thing,� Wilson said.

Oh.

It doesn’t matter how Wilson makes them. Hazzard said he’s seen them before in practice.

“It’s not surprising,� said Hazzard. “He’s a tremendous athlete.�

But there were still some more surprises about Friday night. The first was that Immel would be a starter in place of Hatcher. Another was that Kelvin Bulter, a junior, played in the game and will not be redshirted, as Hazzard had said since the beginning of practice.

On the other hand, freshman Stu Meinert apparently will redshirt, although Hazzard came dangerously close to playing him late in the game.

Of the two, the move of Immel into the starting backcourt is the most significant, if only because he is a junior and Hatcher is a senior.

“We seem to have some chemistry developing there with Dave and Pooh,� Hazzard said. “And even though Montel is a senior, I won’t totally turn my back on him.�

The Bruins’ could not turn their backs on Stanford (7-5, 1-2), until the first few minutes of the second half, when Miller scored nine points in the first three minutes.

Reggie was 10 for 16 and included a very long three-pointer in the first half.

Oh, yes. The first half. For UCLA, they played a first half that was kind of unusual.

The Bruins shot 57% from the field, where people guard you, and 43% from the free throw line, where they leave you alone.

Even though UCLA missed eight of its 14 free throws, including a one-for-five clinker by Pooh Richardson, but the Bruins still led, 43-32, at the midway point.

This was principally due to Wilson, who had already scored a career-high 14 points and shown some of the flair he used in his second-half coast-to-coast dunk trip.

It began innocently enough with a simple looking drive down the right side of the line by Wilson, who left his feet and on the way to the hoop and flipped the ball up and in underhanded.

Although Wilson played 26 minutes, his most playing time this season, he said he really didn’t expect to be the next move into the starting lineup.

“No matter how many minutes I play whether it’s 20 minutes or 10, it doesn’t matter, just as long as we win,� he said.

Another freshman who is getting more playing time is 6-10 Kevin Walker, who for the first time this season shot with confidence. In 9 minutes, Walker made five of his six shots for 12 points.

Bruin Notes Guard Todd Lichti led Stanford with 15 points in 38 minutes, although he made only 4 of 14 field goal attempts . . . The Cardinal outrebounded UCLA, 37-31. Center Howard Wright had 9 to match Trevor Wilson’s rebound total for the Bruins. Reggie Miller did not have a rebound in 34 minutes.