COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT : Bruins Aren’t Half Bad

It was easy. Then it wasn’t. Then it was, wasn’t, was.

The same way the season went.

UCLA, all the way?

Three games to go. Three teams to beat.

Nobody in this NCAA men’s basketball tournament has come any closer to the Bruins than seven points--that being their latest victim, New Mexico State. And this was a bunch UCLA buried in a southwestern sand pit by 21 points Thursday night before settling simply for winning, 85-78.

And so, on the dusty old tournament trail down New Mexico way, where “City Slickers” was filmed, where Bullwhip Bob Knight and his Hoosier ball-in-the-hole gang lie waiting in ambush, UCLA’s best basketball team in a dozen years or more kept moseying along.

Coach Jim Harrick--now a certainty to become the first UCLA coach since John Wooden to last on the job longer than four years--doesn’t feel the need to match Knight whip-for-whip when it comes to motivating the Bruins for Saturday’s rematch.

“This ain’t a dog-and-pony show,” Harrick said.

His team already has beaten Indiana straight-up, 87-72, in the opener of a season that has come full circle.

A whip, a cattle prod, anything might have come in handy Thursday during the second half. The Bruins must have gone through some sort of cerebral reversal, because New Mexico State began carving away at a huge disadvantage.

Harrick put it bluntly:

“We quit playing, quit giving an effort, quit being aggressive, just quit. Sometimes when you get up like that. You just take a big sigh and go, ‘Ohhh,’ and the air just goes out of you.”

By the end, though, UCLA established several things about its team--perhaps the most important being that Darrick Martin still has a lot to offer and that Ed O’Bannon has begun to show more and more what he has to offer.

What did Martin do?

He came off the bench rocking and rolling up and down the floor, scoring 13 points and playing virtually the same number of minutes at point guard as the starter, Tyus Edney, whose assist, point and steal contribution was negligible.

What did O’Bannon do?

He came off the bench ripping, pulling down eight rebounds in 18 minutes, adding seven points, demonstrating a power move to the hoop that came in handy when fouls deprived the Bruins of starter Mitchell Butler.

“O’Bannon made some big contributions, big ones,” Harrick said.

Everybody did.

Everybody had to.

Things were so slow getting started for UCLA, even Tony Fuller, the assistant coach who is leaving to run the program at San Diego State, was denied access to the arena because he couldn’t produce a proper credential.

Then Butler picked up three fouls by the time Fuller found his chair.

Then Gerald Madkins--the very guy who couldn’t believe the way Robert Morris’ players taunted him a few days ago--got a technical foul for taunting a player from New Mexico State.

Seeing Madkins getting a technical is sort of like seeing Mister Rogers in an R-rated movie. You just don’t expect it.

Even so, UCLA shot out in front, 43-22, at which point the Aggies were supposed to tell their very loud fans “thanks for coming and please drive home safely.”

Then the game got away, then it didn’t, did, didn’t.

And now, UCLA can go to the Final Four for the first time since 1980 and maybe win the national championship for the first time since most of these players wore diapers.

UCLA, all the way?

Time to crack the whip.

“They’re going to have a little bit of a revenge factor on their minds,” UCLA’s Don MacLean said of Indiana.

Even with its tendency to start seasons slowly, no Hoosier team enjoys losing by 15 points, if only because the players have to spend days thereafter locking eyeballs with Indiana Bob and his new bullwhip.

Tracy Murray cautioned: “That’s not the same team we played in Springfield (Mass.). We’ve played 30-some games in between. They didn’t even have (guard) Chris Reynolds for that game.”

But UCLA isn’t the same team, either. Martin, Shon Tarver and Rodney Zimmerman, all of whom have been starters during their career, give Harrick reliable people to bring off the bench.

Those early fouls Thursday, particularly Butler’s, might have unnerved another tournament team. Harrick doesn’t forget the way MacLean’s foul trouble against Penn State led to disaster in last year’s NCAA tournament.

UCLA has beaten its opponents in this tournament by 16, 20 and seven points--and the New Mexico State game could have been a lot worse. (Or better, depending how you look at it.)

“What did you expect? For us to beat them by 25?” MacLean asked.

No, seven will do.

The crusade continues. Bring on Indiana Bob.