He’s Not Ahead of the Game, but He’s Definitely Above It

Last week, UCLA signed the tallest player in college basketball, Mike Lanier, a 7-foot-6 transfer from Hardin-Simmons in Abilene, Tex.

Can he play?

As a sophomore last season, Lanier averaged 6.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and one blocked shot, starting 22 of 28 games for the Cowboys, who were 9-19 and finished sixth in the nine-team Trans America Athletic Conference.

“He may be a player, but it won’t be in my lifetime,” Coach Bob Reinhart of Georgia State told the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

But Al Menendez, a scout for the Indiana Pacers, told Abilene reporters that Lanier was more developed at this stage than Mark Eaton, the 7-4 former Bruin who plays for the Utah Jazz. Menendez also told Coach Dennis Harp of Hardin-Simmons that Lanier was further along than Chuck Nevitt, a 7-5 former Laker.

“At the same stage?” Harp asked Menendez.

“No,” Menendez said. “Right now.”

For what it’s worth: In a 79-66 loss to Texas El Paso last season, Lanier scored 14 points and took five rebounds against the Miners’ 7-foot center, former Bruin Greg Foster. Foster had nine points and four rebounds before fouling out after playing 20 minutes.

History lesson: Eaton led Cypress College to the state community college championship as a sophomore, averaging 14.9 points and 8.7 rebounds a game, but played only 3.6 minutes a game in two seasons at UCLA before being drafted by the Jazz in 1982.

“They were either lazy at UCLA,” former Jazz coach Frank Layden told Sports Illustrated last year, “or dumb.”

Trivia time: What do NBA players John Stockton, Charles Barkley, Chuck Person, A.C. Green, Michael Cage, Johnny Dawkins, Joe Dumars, Terry Porter and Blair Rasmussen have in common?

Far out, Don: Despite a .253 career batting average against the Angels, his lowest against any team, Don Mattingly of the New York Yankees has a .362 average at Anaheim Stadium.

Mattingly said he gets hot each season when the Yankees make their first trip to the West Coast.

“I’m always in a good mood out here and in a positive frame of mind,” Mattingly said last weekend at Anaheim Stadium, where he was five for 13 with four runs batted in during a three-game sweep of the Angels. “It’s light and airy, relaxed and laid back.

“It’s different than New York--almost the exact opposite. Sometimes New York gets so heavy it just dominates you. Out here, it’s the beach and, ‘Hey, Dude.’ ”

Say what?It’s hard to believe, but the “Say Hey” kid, Willie Mays, celebrated his 60th birthday on Sunday.

The southpaws are coming: Five teams in the Pacific 10 Conference are expected to open the season with left-handed quarterbacks--USC with Todd Marinovich, Washington State with Brad Gossen, Washington with Mark Brunell, Arizona with George Malauulu and Oregon State with Matt Booher.

Trivia answer: All were cut from the 1984 U.S. Olympic team.

Quotebook: Luis Polonia, Angel outfielder recently acquired from the New York Yankees, criticizing his former team for using him mostly as a pinch-hitter and designated hitter, told Sports Illustrated: “The Yankees are only interested in one thing, and I don’t know what that is.”