Stanford Is Routed by UCLA

UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard, still smarting from the indignity of that 11-point victory over Cal, marked Stanford for extinction and watched his Bruins put the Cardinal to the torch. Go ahead, make his night.

The Bruins outscored Stanford, 36-8, in the first nine minutes of the second half, led by as many as 39 points and rolled to a 100-71 victory Saturday night before 11,178 at Pauley Pavilion, their sixth win in seven games.

It was the first time they’d scored 100 points since the second-to-last regular-season game of the ‘82-83 season. They’re now 9-7, their high-water mark under Hazzard, and 6-2 in the Pacific 10, .083 behind USC and Oregon State.

Said Hazzard after this one, beaming: “No complaints tonight, gentlemen. . . .

“What’s our record in conference, 6-2? I love it. Six and two and Oregon State (a loser in Corvallis Saturday to Arizona State) is coming back to us. And next Friday is war. USC-UCLA.”

Thursday, Hazzard hadn’t loved it as much. He publicly ripped his players for coasting, including a special commendation for his big men, Brad Wright and Gary Maloncon. “I guess,” he said Thursday, “they took the night off.”

Saturday night, they were back on. Maloncon, battling a shooting slump, exacerbated by all the quick hooks he was getting for insufficient defense or rebounding, scored 23 points and took 11 rebounds, both season highs for him.

Wright, who’d been challenging for the conference rebounding lead until he took only four against the Bears, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked four shots.

“I really did need this,” Maloncon said. “It’s a great feeling. I can’t tell you how I feel right now. . . .

“That just wasn’t me out there playing. It felt like it was somebody else. . . .

“I’ve been worrying about my shot, things like that. That was something I never used to worry about. If it was there, I took it. If it wasn’t, I threw the ball back out. Tonight, I told myself enough of that. I’m just going to go out and be Gary Maloncon.”

He went out, knocked in his first shot from 17 feet, went to the other end of the floor and blocked Earl Reveno’s shot, helping out defensively. And off went the Bruins.

Stanford was lined up in one of Dr. Tom Davis’ mysterious zone defenses. It was either a matchup, a 2-3, a 3-2, a 1-2-2 with the point man dropping into the lane when the ball goes to the wings. “I don’t know,” Hazzard said. “I still can’t figure it out.”

But it’s like any other zone, it gives up shots from outside, many of which the Bruins tossed in. Nigel Miguel, the 39.8% shooter of last season, 14 of his last 15 coming into Saturday, made three of his first four shots over the zone. When he cooled down, the Bruins went to their Reggie offense, Reggie Miller launching from downtown.

Miller tossed in one 18-footer off the backboard when he was the first man down on a fast break and cut off from the basket by a defender.

He liked that one so much that the next time he touched the ball, he backed up to a full 23 feet out and dropped one in from there.

“Where is Reggie allowed to shoot from?” Hazzard was asked later.

“Long as it’s on the court,” Hazzard said. “Anything but out of bounds is OK.”

Dr. Tom still had enough tricks up his sleeve to keep it close for a half. He may have noticed that since encountering their troubles with presses at Arizona State, the Bruins had been relying heavily on lobs to Wright, the center, to get the ball in bounds. Davis’ players intercepted three of those lobs in the first half alone, forced 10 other turnovers and trailed by only 40-30 at halftime.

After that, the lights went out in a hurry.

“When we walked into the locker room,” Hazzard said, “they were talking about the fact that we’d given up a lot of layups and offensive rebounds. The players were talking to themselves.”

In case they wondered what his position was on that, Hazzard agreed, they were giving up too many layups and offensive rebounds. The Bruins came back out for the second half and laid down a fearsome barrage, as devastating as anything they’d done this season, against USIU, against themselves, you name it.

Davis was asked later how it felt to be the next team in after Hazzard’s diatribe

“I’ve got enough to worry about with my own team,” he said, smiling. “We’ve got a real nice group of young men. We’ve got some talent, but it’s young and inexperienced. We can be competitive some nights, but everything has to fall in place.”

Saturday night, everything fell on them. It’s not the same thing.

Bruin Notes

The Cardinal shot 34.8%, the fifth time in eight conference games that UCLA has held the opposition to less than 40%. In two other games, they allowed 41.8% and 42.9%... Brad Wright, asked about Walt Hazzard’s angry speech Thursday: “I don’t want to comment on it. . . . Hazzard, on the effect of his team’s difficult preseason schedule: “December is paying off. The death march is paying dividends. . . . As Coach (John) Wooden used to say, we gain something from adversity. And we sure had a lot of it. . . You see St. John’s today? They proved they were the No. 1 team in the nation. When we played St. John’s, we had no business being on the same court with them. But as time progresses, we’d like to have the opportunity to see some of those good teams later on.” He’s talking about the NCAA tournament, folks.