Either Bruins or Cougars Will Bounce Back Tonight

The Pacific 10 basketball season has reached that point where coaches are acknowledging that some games are musts, such as tonight’s game between UCLA and Washington State at Pullman, Wash.

Coach Walt Hazzard of UCLA says it’s a must because the Bruins need to bounce back from last weekend’s two one-point losses. Also, because they’ve won only one road game this season. Also, because there are five teams within a game of the conference lead and they want to remain one of them.

Also, because he doesn’t like the thought of taking the Bruins into Seattle to play Washington Saturday coming off a loss here.

For Washington State’s Coach Len Stevens, it’s a must for a different reason. The Cougars have lost seven games in a row, starting when UCLA took them apart three weeks ago at Pauley Pavilion.

They aren’t in tip-top shape for this one, either.

“The more we practice, the more we get hurt,” Stevens said Wednesday from Pullman. “We’ve lost (reserve forward) Brian Quinnett for the UCLA game for sure. He sprained his ankle in the Arizona game. On Monday (point guard) Keith Morrison strained some ligaments in his right knee. We don’t know for sure. He didn’t practice Tuesday. We’re down to about eight players. It’s been that kind of year.

“Losing Keith would be devastating. He just does so many things for us. He’s so complete a player, we would have a difficult time without him. We would have Kittrick Taylor running the point. He’s a football player. We’d have Chris Babich, a track walk-on at the other guard. . . .

“Hopefully we’ll all survive this season. Next year, they’ll all be back, plus Chris Winkler (the original starting point guard until he was hurt in a sledding accident). We’ll have great size. Our big kids aren’t ready to play right now, but they are playing. That might make them ready sooner. Next year we’ll be ready to compete for the top three in the Pac-10.”

Bruin Notes

The 6-3 Keith Morrison, a graduate of Cleveland High in Reseda, started the season at off-guard. He leads the Cougars in rebounding, assists, steals and minutes played and is the second-leading scorer, at 12.4 points a game. Joe Wallace leads with a 19.2 average. . . . Morrison went 5 for 15 at Pauley Pavilion, but led a second-half rally with a succession of unbelievable shots. Walt Hazzard said: “If he can hit those shots again, more power to him. Some of those were .9 in difficulty. He’s right-handed, coming in there, double-clutching, switching hands in the air, throwing it up left-handed off the glass. I mean, gee.” . . . In the first game, Nigel Miguel played Wallace and held him to 4 for 18.

Hazzard is now using sophomore Dave Immel, previously an off-guard, to run the team when Miguel is out. Immel was an early starter, then missed a couple of weeks with hamstring pulls, but has come a long way in a hurry. In one stretch against USC, he scored or assisted on six of eight UCLA baskets. Hazzard said: “He was telling me yesterday in practice, his new God-given speed was a surprise to him. Now he has to learn how to control it.” Immel, 6-4 1/2 and a muscular 183 pounds, is on the slow side but he is strong enough and handles the ball well enough to take it inside when he wants to, which is usually. The loser in this case is Corey Gaines, whose playing time has dropped off.