Full angular distributions for elastic and inelastic scattering of ¹¹B on ⁵⁸Ni have been measured at different bombarding energies around the Coulomb barrier. Measurement and analysis with coupled-channel calculations have been performed for the first time for a system with the tightly bound ¹¹B as projectile on a medium mass target. In these calculations, the real part of the interaction potential between nuclei was represented by a parameter-free double-folding potential. To avoid the use of an imaginary potential at the surface, several inelastic transitions of the projectile and the target have been included in the coupling matrix. The result of these coupled-channel calculations are in very good agreement with all experimental angular distributions. The most important result was the striking influence on the reaction mechanism of the ground-state-spin reorientation of the ¹¹B nuclei.