Rare Pair Steps Forward for UCLA

Half of UCLA’s front court is built like a rock and has the touch of a blacksmith.

The other half is built like a bread stick and has the touch of a diamond cutter.

Between them, Trevor Wilson and Don MacLean can do pretty much anything you might want your front court to do.

Score? Sunday, in an important Pacific 10 game against Oregon State at Pauley Pavilion, they each had 26.

Rebound? Wilson grabbed 14 Sunday, MacLean 8.

Run? Wilson is a very quick 6-foot-8, MacLean a real smooth 6-10.

Play defense? When they put their minds to it.

Best of all, they’re in sync, as dissimilar yet as well matched as Hap-pea and Pea-wee, those pea-soup making twins.

That’s because Wilson and Maclean have worn one another out on the basketball court for many years.

“First time I saw Don was when he was in the sixth grade and I was in the eighth grade,” says Wilson, who is now a junior.

They were playing on opposing teams in the American Roundball Corporation, a youth league in the San Fernando Valley.

They were both big, both very good, and within a couple of years they became regular workout partners, even though Wilson lived in Sherman Oaks and MacLean in the Simi Valley.

When MacLean was going into the ninth grade and was deciding to get serious about basketball, he and Wilson worked out one-on-one, or two-on-two, every weekend, workouts that continued for two years, then resumed last summer.

“He prepared me for high school,” MacLean said. “He prepared me for this season, too.”

What more can you ask out of your power forward? Wilson not only rebounds better than anyone in the conference, but he also has helped groom one of the nation’s two or three finest freshman basketball players.

MacLean might not even be a Bruin if it weren’t for Wilson.

“I talked to him (during recruiting) about the possibility of us playing beside each other,” Wilson says. “We complement each other, we know where the other one will be. But there were a lot of things going on at UCLA (Walt Hazzard fired and Jim Harrick hired), so I couldn’t tell him to come into a program where I wasn’t sure about the coaching situation.”

Was Wilson’s presence a factor in MacLean’s decision to become a Bruin?

“It was one of the advantages,” MacLean said.

In a way, MacLean coming to UCLA was a disadvantage to Wilson. His buddy, the freshman, has overshadowed Trevor somewhat. MacLean is the phenom, the gifted scorer with the beautiful touch.

But Wilson doesn’t seem to mind sharing the spotlight. He and MacLean are roommates, and Wilson is MacLean’s biggest booster.

Trevor is proud of MacLean’s un-timid style of play, proud that MacLean has developed somewhat of a reputation as a woofer, a smart-mouth freshman.

“When they try to push him around or talk about him because he’s a freshman, he comes right back at them,” Wilson said. “He’s gotten a lot better, he fights back now, he doesn’t like to be pushed around.”

Neither does Wilson, who despite the acclaim for MacLean and for senior guard Pooh Richardson, might be the key Bruin on a team that has an outside shot at the conference title.

The Pooh-led fast break most often starts with a Trevor Wilson rebound, and he’s second on the team in scoring, 18.7 to MacLean’s 19.6.

“Trevor is just a great athlete,” Jim Harrick said. “He has great quickness for a forward, and when he consistently hits his medium-range jump shot, he’ll be ready (for the National Basketball Assn.)”

Right now he’s definitely ready for the Pac-10. His 26 points Sunday were a career high.

“I’ve had to pick up the intensity the last few games,” Wilson said. “You have to go all out, make a consistent effort. When people are pushing you, you push back. It’s hard to explain, but (Harrick) said I wasn’t aggressive enough. I watch film all the time, and I agree with him.”

An aggressive Wilson is impressive. Sunday he scored seven of UCLA’s first nine points, then tossed an assist to MacLean. Trevor threw down at least three dunks in the game, including one where he started to jam two-handed, changed his mind in midair and swooped in for a right-hander.

Wilson is one of those guys who can intimidate the other team just by strolling onto the court to jump center. He’s a dedicated off-season weightlifter who looks as strong as he plays.

He has helped push MacLean into weightlifting, although on MacLean the effects of the iron are less obvious.

Separately, they have impressive skills. Together, they can be unstoppable.

The UCLA assembly line cranks out forwards one after another, fine-tuned and NBA-ready. Sidney Wicks, Curtis Rowe, Keith Wilkes, Dave Meyers, Marques Johnson, David Greenwood, Kiki Vandeweghe, people like that.

The team of Wilson & MacLean, playground buddies from way back, could wind up as good as any two the Bruins ever put on the floor.