Welcome back down to Earth, ladies and gentlemen.
With last night’s come-from-behind, then lose-from-ahead loss to No. 8 Texas, the highly-ranked Bruins are officially human again.
The Longhorns came into Pauley with plenty of their own home cooking Sunday night, and dished the Bruins a large slice of humble pie. A scoop of nice-try-maybe-next-time pudding would have gone down a little smoother, but last night it just wasn’t to be.
It should be said that at no point in this game did anyone except the gaggle of Texas fans think UCLA was going to drop this one.
Not even in the first half, when the Bruins were struggling against Texas’ zone. Not even when Damion James slammed home a D.J. Augustin miss to take the lead with eight seconds left. Not even when Luc Richard Mbah a Moute heaved up a desperation trey with the clock expiring.
Only when the buzzer rang, the ball clanged off the rim and my jaw hit the floor did I realize what had happened.
It was over despite the Bruins’ second-half domination and much-improved play. The end result was the Bruins’ first “L” at home in 25 games.
It’s too bad, really, because the Bruins played well enough to win.
At least for the second half.
In the first half, UCLA started strong, getting the ball inside with Russell Westbrook and Darren Collison driving into the lane. They pushed the tempo, capitalized on a couple of fast breaks and ran up a quick 10-4 lead.
Then, inexplicably, UCLA shut down for the better part of eight minutes.
Coach Ben Howland tried various lineups to break the zone, but in the scoreless stretch that would eventually cost them the game, nothing worked.
UCLA’s on-call sharpshooter and zone-breaker Michael Roll saw his first action of the season in the first half, but Texas wouldn’t cooperate. They switched to man-to-man defense every time he stepped on the court.
The Bruins’ possessions were limited to dancing around the perimeter, settling for too many 3s and not getting to the line.
For eight minutes, the Bruins saw the Longhorns pile on for a 30-16 lead with less than five minutes to go in the first half. Nobody scored, nobody rebounded.
Even Collison got beat by Augustin on a couple of isolation plays. Collison doesn’t get beat by anybody. It was painful to watch.
Fortunately for the Bruins, halftime came.
Whatever Howland proceeded to say to his team at that time, he should say more often. It worked better than A1 and a London broil.
In the second half, the Bruins came out firing, fixed their first-half mistakes and clamped down on defense.
They looked like the usual Bruins: forcing turnovers, grabbing rebounds and putting up fast-break points.
On offense they worked the ball into the low-post and let Kevin Love do what he does best ““ bang down low and get to the line a few times.
They looked like the top-ranked squad in the country, quickly erasing a 12-point halftime deficit and forcing Texas to adjust to them.
Unfortunately, with about a minute left, Connor Atchley ““ the same guy who flipped the bird to The Den postgame ““ nailed a huge 3 to pull Texas into a tie in what would be the last lead change.
So for now the Bruins will slide down the polls a bit, but, hey, it’s a long season.
Maybe the Bruins will get a shot in March to serve Atchley some redemption casserole. I hear it’s a dish best served cold.
E-mail Feder at jfeder@media.ucla.edu if you think King Kong ain’t got nothing on Denzel or the Bruins.