Harrick Cautious Despite Fast Start : UCLA: Coach downplays Bruins’ easy victory over Indiana.

Coach Jim Harrick isn’t quite sure what to make of UCLA’s 87-72 victory over Indiana two weeks ago at Springfield, Mass.

“I don’t want to get too excited about it,” Harrick said this week as his Bruin basketball team prepared to play Cal State Long Beach tonight in its home opener at Pauley Pavilion.

“On the one hand, it’s a nonleague game in November, but on the other hand, it’s beating a program that through the late ‘70s and ‘80s has been a dominant program. Certainly, you don’t want to minimize that.

“But I get the feeling that we’ve been here before. Last year, we were playing awfully well early, so I really want to be cautious. It’s such a long year, and so many things can happen.”

UCLA lost only once in its first 14 games last season, climbed to No. 5 in the rankings, then stumbled down the stretch. The Bruins were 10-8 during the last two months of the season, including a 74-69 loss to Penn State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

So Harrick is reluctant to read too much into the victory over the then-second-ranked Hoosiers, even if it did lift the Bruins into fourth place in this week’s Associated Press poll.

“I’m not sure whether we played well or they played poorly,” Harrick said. “I’m sure they played poorly because it certainly wasn’t the same team we had all been looking for. But I can’t worry about that.

“I certainly like some of the things about our team, although it was such an early game that it’s hard to make a determination.”

Harrick probably won’t know much more about his team until the second weekend in January, when the Bruins open Pacific 10 Conference play with a trip to Arizona State and Arizona.

Before then, UCLA will play seven more nonconference games, all but one at Pauley Pavilion, and the next five are against Southland opponents. Last season, UCLA won by an average of almost 32 points over UC Irvine, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine and San Diego State. The Bruins also beat Fresno State by 21 points and St. Mary’s by 30.

Still, Harrick will be looking for the same type of intensity that overwhelmed Indiana.

“You hope you can get your team to rise back up and play that kind of basketball throughout the year,” he said.