When Hill’s Time Comes for Northridge, It’s Prime Time : Basketball: He takes over for Chevalier at point guard in opener today at UCLA.

Changing of the guard at Cal State Northridge.

Robert Hill steps in for Andre Chevalier as point guard and floor leader of the men’s basketball team.

Were the task of replacing Northridge’s career scoring leader not daunting enough, Hill’s coming out is against Tyus Edney and sixth-ranked UCLA at 2 today at Pauley Pavilion.

The 5-foot-10 Edney last season averaged 15.4 points and was an All-Pacific 10 Conference selection. A senior, Edney is quick, flashy and regarded among the nation’s best players at his position. Hill, workmanlike and relatively unpolished, is a junior making his second college start.

Hill has every reason to be uptight, nervous, even a tad scared. At game time, he might be all of those. But more than anything else, he says he feels prepared. “When I came out of high school my coach would tell me, ‘Don’t expect to be the star player. Just wait, always practice hard and when your time comes, be there to deliver,’ ” Hill said.

“Later, when I’d see him, he’d ask how things were going and I’d say, ‘My time hasn’t come yet, Coach. But I know it will.’ I always looked at my junior year as my time to shine.”

In the meantime, he took the advice to heart.

Averaging not quite 10 minutes of playing time in 54 games as Chevalier’s understudy, Hill made the most of practice.

“He accepted his role and yet at the same time was not resigned to it,” Northridge Coach Pete Cassidy said. “He continued to work to be better, feeling that his day would come.”

Matched against Chevalier during drills, Hill learned through hard knocks.

“My freshman year I was frustrated a lot,” Hill recalled. “(Chevalier) was always stealing the ball from me. But at the end of each practice he’d pull me aside and we’d talk. He’d say, ‘Look here, Rob, when you do your spin move, you have to keep the ball out in front of you.’ . . . That’s how I learned.”

By the middle of last season, Hill was holding his own and occasionally getting the best of his mentor.

“Rob is a workaholic and he’s going to do whatever it takes to get the job done,” Chevalier said. “Whether he needs to read a book or put in five or six hours after practice, he’s going to do it.”

Hill’s work ethic, graciousness and team-oriented approach have endeared him to Cassidy, who admits being “a bit partial” to the 6-foot-1 former North Hollywood High standout.

Proof positive is Cassidy’s claim that he “would be interested to hear” Hill perform rap music.

Cassidy, as most every Northridge player will tell you, despises rap and forbids it to be played around him.

Hill, whose father runs a recording studio, writes rap music and used to perform in a two-man group called “Snoop and Reality.” Hill and partner Marcus Nash cut one single, entitled “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” a song about teen-age pregnancy. “At the time, in high school, a lot of our friends were having babies at a young age,” Hill said.

“They were always talking about the mistakes they made, so we wrote about it.”

Hill is inspired to write by activities around him, the experiences of friends, or stories he sees on television newscasts. He has never penned about what happens on the basketball floor.

Maybe that’s a good thing.

Chevalier said Hill’s intensity during practice is legendary--and occasionally comical. “He’d miss a jump shot and all of a sudden you’d hear, ‘Make a shot, Rob!’ He’d just yell at himself. We’d all be like, ‘Man, everybody misses a shot.’ But that’s Rob--he wants to be perfect.”

For the Matadors, steady would suffice. Last season, Hill committed more turnovers than he had assists, and at times he appeared to lack confidence.

“If there is anyone who is tough on Robert, it’s Robert,” said forward Peter Micelli, Northridge’s top returning scorer. “He always demands the most from himself.”

Hill acknowledges his tendency to press and says he knows that has to change. “At times I hurt myself because I get down and that makes my game go down,” he said. “I know as point guard I can’t show any negativity. The team would catch on to it.”

Hill is looking forward to the challenge.

“They have a great team and (Edney is) a great player,” Hill said.

“But if he comes in underestimating me, he’ll get a surprise.”