Lights, Cameras and UCLA Action at Last : College basketball: Bruins feeling good after beating Louisville on national television, 75-72.

At Pauley Pavilion on Sunday afternoon, a loud, harmonic tone resonated inside the bald head of Ed O’Bannon, who identified it quickly.

“Positive vibes,” he said.

Good vibrations being what they are, it was a bunch of giddy Bruins who accepted a 75-72 victory over 10th-ranked Louisville, then started thinking about what it all meant.

Would it keep the critics off Coach Jim Harrick’s back? Would it keep them in the West Regional? Would it keep them from having to take a trip to Oregon for two games this week?

No is the answer to all the questions, but for UCLA, there is no bad news. The result of one game is that the Bruins are now actually digging those good vibrations. Who knows, maybe the Beach Boys will show up and sit on the bench in Corvallis.

After Oregon State and Oregon comes the NCAA tournament, which suddenly doesn’t look like such a bad idea for UCLA, 20-5 and feeling good about itself.

“It was a really big win,” Tyus Edney said. “It’s good for our confidence to know we can beat a good team.”

In their recent style, the Bruins did it the hard way. They fell behind, 11-1, in less than four minutes, trailed by four at the half, came from behind in the last two minutes and needed Greg Minor to miss a potential game-tying three-pointer with four seconds left to win.

However anyone else looked at it, it was beautiful to Harrick.

“We had the defense and emotion we had early in the year,” said Harrick, who added that he thinks the Bruins could nail down a No. 3 or No. 4 seeding in some region if they sweep the Oregon schools.

Ed O’Bannon isn’t sure where UCLA is going to play at tournament time, but he is certain of one thing.

“All I do know is, I’m going to get on a plane and go somewhere to play,” he said.

Before a sellout crowd of 12,243 in UCLA’s final home game, O’Bannon and his brother Charles clearly came to Pauley to play. First, it was Ed’s turn. He kept the Bruins close with 15 points and seven rebounds in the first half, which ended with a 38-34 Louisville lead.

Then it was Charles. He had 11 of his 17 points and eight of his 11 rebounds in the second half and made the biggest play of the game in the stretch run.

The Cardinals, with 6-foot-9 Clifford Rozier continuing to be a major irritant inside, scored on five consecutive possessions to take a 68-63 lead with 7:19 to go.

Louisville (24-5) was still ahead, 72-71, when Edney got the ball to Charles O’Bannon for a dunk with 1:49 left. Then, after Rozier threw the ball away, he fouled George Zidek, who made the first of two free throws for a 74-72 lead.

Zidek missed the second one, but O’Bannon slipped inside the lane and got a hand on the ball, batting it to Zidek. Edney made one of two free throws for a three-point UCLA lead.

Denny Crum called a timeout with 16 seconds left and drew up a play, but with Shon Tarver close by, Minor missed his three-point attempt and the ball bounced away as the clock ran out.

Said Crum: “That’s just what happens sometimes.”

Similar things have been happening on occasion to the Bruins, and Ed O’Bannon said he thought he might be seeing it again when Louisville took a 16-5 lead.

“I was scared,” he said. “I thought, ‘Here we are on national TV, and we’re going to get blown out again.’ ”

But these were negative vibes, not at all acceptable. Rozier, who scored 24 points but wasn’t nearly as effective when UCLA put a defender in front of him, said the Bruins are better than he thought.

“They surprised me, especially how hard they hit the boards,” he said. “When both O’Bannons are playing like they did this time, they’ll be tough to beat. Come tournament time, I think they’ll be all right.”