Miller Has 42, Is Too Much for Louisville

Here is how Reggie Miller spent his Saturday afternoon. He scored 42 points against Louisville, he stole the ball four times, he hugged his sister Cheryl and he showed up at a postgame press conference wearing a pair of shades.

So, Reggie, is this how it’s going to be in the tournament games? “I’m not a Gypsy,” he said. “I’m not a fortune teller.”

And of course, that was no crystal ball that Miller and the Bruins were throwing at and into the basket in their 99-86 victory over the Cardinals at Pauley Pavilion.

It probably wouldn’t have made any difference if it was. The way Miller and Dave Immel were shooting, they could have been hurling cantaloupes and they would have made them fit into tin cans.

Reggie, who said he is no longer reluctant to shoot because now the games are more important, put up 19 shots from the field, made 15 of them, sank 2 of 3 three-pointers, made all 10 of his free throws, scored 33 points in the second half and reached a career high in points.

Now, this is how Louisville will spend today: The players will take a trip to Disneyland. They got Fantasyland out of the way at Pauley.

“They can shoot from anywhere,” Louisville Coach Denny Crum said of UCLA’s jump shooters. “In fact, they did.”

And this is how the regular season ended for UCLA and Louisville: For the Cardinals, the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament may be in their near future, although with a 17-13 record, Crum is far from sure.

“We’re probably on the bubble,” said Crum, whose team is the defending national champion. “I don’t think there are 60 teams better than we are. But if we don’t get in, I’ll just go fishing.”

And UCLA? “They’ll definitely get a bid,” Crum said.

The 21-6 Bruins won for the 18th time in their last 20 games, this one before a gathering of 11,578 who saw an interesting series of matchups. Immel took on the three-point line, point guard Pooh Richardson took on Cardinal forward Herbert Crook, and Cardinal center Pervis Ellison took on any UCLA shot he could reach.

The winners were UCLA, Immel, and Ellison, the latter blocking six shots.

“That guy should be playing volleyball, because he was spiking everything,” said Bruin center Jack Haley, who had three of his shots blocked by Ellison, one of them by the 6-foot 9-inch sophomore’s elbow.

“I was bumping him around a lot, but it never seemed to bother him,” Haley said. “You know, he really is ‘Never Nervous Pervis.’ ”

Pooh and Crook wound up in a draw. Both were ejected in the second half for their involvement in a brief fight. It only lasted a minute but cleared both benches and also possibly Pooh’s sinus passages when Crook bopped him in the head.

By then, UCLA already had a 78-59 lead with 6:47 to play, and the Bruins went on from there to score a clear-cut victory for their style of play.

That style is probably best modeled by Immel and Miller. It features plunging jump shots, like the ones Immel displayed on his way to a career-high 23 points. Immel attempted 15 shots, but 11 of them were from behind the three-point line. And he made six of the three-pointers.

From Reggie’s launch pad, a pair of jumpers measured at 25 feet found the hoop on their way down. Afterward, Crum applauded UCLA’s jump shot-oriented offense.

“If I had those kids, I’d have them shooting three-pointers, too,” he said.

Everybody knows that the Bruins are going to ride their jump shots as far as they will carry them. And although UCLA’s lack of an inside game, when they have the ball and when they don’t, has been a major source of irritation to Coach Walt Hazzard when he is reminded about it, the Bruins’ outside game was clearly better than Louisville’s inside game.

The Bruins, who led, 43-34, at the half, found out quickly they were playing a speed game. Louisville runs as much as the Bruins but not as well because its guards aren’t as good, so there wasn’t much time wasted on the 45-second shot clock.

When Immel’s 24-foot three-pointer reached the basket midway through the half, UCLA moved out to its first nine-point lead. Ellison scored 12 of his 19 points in the first half, but he did most of his damage in the second half when he didn’t have the ball.

“Pervis played about as well as he could play with his shot-blocking,” Crum said. “If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have been competitive.”

After the Cardinals got to within 49-42 four minutes into the second half, the Bruins increased a 55-46 lead to 61-47 on successive three-pointers by Miller and Immel.

A 10-0 run by UCLA that included two more Immel three-pointers put it out of reach, 71-52, with 10:20 left. The Bruins were better off staying away from Ellison, even with the lopsided score. In a five-minute stretch, Ellison rejected five shots.

“He was like a goalie knocking the balls away,” Hazzard said. “And he’s just a sophomore. That’s scary.”

Meanwhile, the debate continues about UCLA’s inside game. Ellison, who has an opinion about it, sounded as though he had just seen a flying saucer.

“When they got the ball inside, it kind of amazed me,” he said. “They tried to do it a couple of times, I guess, but if they are going to be a better team, they are going to have to get the ball inside a little more.”

Crum thinks UCLA is on target with its style.

“Any time you have the ability to shoot three-pointers, that’s taking advantage of your strength,” Crum said. “That’s good coaching. It hides weaknesses. If UCLA has a chance to win, it has to be with perimeter shooting, because that’s their strength.”

Bruin Notes

“We Ain’t No Wimps, Part II”: When Pooh Richardson got into a fight with Louisville’s Herbert Crook, it was UCLA’s second in its last three games. Richardson, echoing what Reggie Miller said at Eugene, Ore., when the Bruins got into a bench-clearing brawl, said he was no wimp and wasn’t going to get pushed around. “He (Crook) wanted to punch my face out,” Pooh said. “I can fight to protect myself.” Crook had no comment about the fight, which began when Crook got his foot caught beneath Richardson’s leg as Pooh lay on the floor. Crook tried to pull free, and Richardson tried to get up, but when neither one happened quickly, Crook hit Richardson’s head in a sweeping motion. UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard was on the floor in an instant, and the fight ended with Hazzard giving 6-7, 220-pound Cardinal forward Mark McSwain a two-handed shove off the court. What happened? “From my position, it looked like the big boy pushed the little boy around and the little boy showed him he couldn’t do that,” Hazzard said. . . . Miller’s points amounted to one more than the 41 he scored against Oregon State last season. Dave Immel’s 23 points were also one better than his career high, which had come against Pepperdine this season. . . . Best Yogi Berra quote of the day goes to Louisville Coach Denny Crum, who said of his team: “The future of my team, if it has one, is still in front of us.” Right. . . . Miller lost out to Oregon State’s Jose Ortiz as the player of the year in District 8, which covers the West Coast, although Miller was chosen to the 10-player squad chosen by basketball writers. Hazzard didn’t seem to disagree, saying: “His last two games (Miller had 36 points against USC Thursday night) have made a mockery out of picking the best player on the West Coast. . . . Reggie Miller is the best basketball player on the West Coast.”