After Miss, Oregon Fan Got in the Last Shot

What are the odds of this happening? Students made half-court shots during halftime of the UCLA and USC games Thursday night.

Jesse Melgares’ shot at Pauley Pavilion earned him books and tuition for a year. At the Sports Arena, Nate Erickson made a layup, a free throw, a three-point shot and the half-court shot in 25 seconds, but there was one problem. It took him two attempts to make the half-court shot, so he failed to win a $10,000 scholarship.

Only the crowd didn’t know it and went wild. Erickson, who knew he hadn’t won, turned the cheers to boos when he removed his “Trojan Fever” T-shirt to reveal an Oregon jersey.

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Trivia time: Tex Winter turns 84 today and still works part-time for the Lakers, making this his 58th year in coaching. The USC graduate, after four years as an assistant coach at Kansas State, got his first head coaching job at age 28 in 1952 at what Division I school?

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Farm report: Things aren’t going too well for the Stanford men’s basketball team. The Cardinal’s loss to Washington Thursday night was its fourth defeat in five games.

Things began to unravel with a loss at California on Feb. 9. The Cardinal not only lost that game but also its Tree.

Erin Lashnits, 23, a fifth-year biology student and former varsity diver who was the Stanford Tree, was given a Breathalyzer test after dancing at center court during halftime.

She registered a 0.157, and, as Jerry Greene of the Orlando Sentinel wrote, “was ordered to, um, disembark.”

In other words, she was suspended, but she told the Stanford Daily she was burnt out anyway.

“One thing the Tree should never be is burnt out,” wrote Greene, who also noted: “Now she may be remembered as Stanford’s Potted Plant.”

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More trouble: In Stanford’s home loss to Arizona on Feb. 19, a streaker showed up on the court during a second-half timeout and got away.

“Simply another guy who couldn’t be stopped by Stanford,” wrote Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle.

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Well-schooled: Southern California boxing promoter Roy Englebrecht, who started a camp for aspiring sportscasters in 1985, just held a similar camp for aspiring boxing promoters. He called his three-day course, held in Irvine, “Fight Promoter University” and offered an MBA -- Master of Boxing Administration.

Wrote Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: “The steep $1,995 tuition fee, we assume, comes with a complimentary class ring.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1977, Pete Maravich of the New Orleans Jazz scored 68 points in a 124-107 victory over the New York Knicks. At the time, it was the most points scored by an NBA guard.

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Trivia answer: Marquette.

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And finally: Former Los Angeles Herald Examiner sportswriter Dick Miller says, “Kwame Brown reminds me of Roberto Duran. Both have ‘hands of stone.’ ”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart at latimes.com.