COLLEGE BASKETBALL : NCAA ISSUES AND THE MEN’S, WOMEN’S TOURNAMENTS : It’s Not Easy to Figure Out These Bruins : NCAA men: After 14-0 start, UCLA believes it could have been a lot better than 21-6 in regular season.

The day before his team was to play its last Pacific 10 Conference game, a loss to Oregon that cost the Bruins a share of the conference title, Jim Harrick sat on a bench at McArthur Court and shook his head.

“Sometimes I don’t know if we’re 21-5 or 5-21,” he said.

He sounded more confused than angry, understandable if you look at the tortured path the Bruins have followed to the NCAA tournament.

The Bruins have to be the most unfulfilled 21-6 team still playing, mostly because they know very well that they could have done a whole lot better.

But after opening the season with 14 consecutive victories and climbing to No. 1, UCLA staggered home. The Bruins finished 7-6 and dropped to a No. 5 seeding in the Midwest Regional at Oklahoma City, where they will play home-state favorite Tulsa in the first round Friday.

If the Bruins get past Tulsa, they may very well play another semi-local team, Oklahoma State, on Sunday. Then, as a reward, if they are still alive, they can look forward to a possible showdown against second-ranked Arkansas.

Looking back, there are three main reasons for UCLA to be in this fix: Notre Dame, USC and Oregon.

Reverse those three ignominious defeats and the Bruins are 24-3 and probably seeded first in the West.

It might not be good for the Bruins’ tender psyches to be reminded, but these were the obvious low lights:

--Losing by 16 points to a Notre Dame team that was 6-13.

--Losing by six points at USC after blowing out the Trojans four weeks earlier.

--Losing at Oregon against a 9-17 team after scoring one basket in the last 8 minutes 38 seconds.

The Bruins seem eager to atone for all that. At Oregon, two players actually dived after a loose ball. The last previous time a UCLA player dived for a loose ball? Well, who can remember?

There also is the possibility that UCLA is going to be an entirely different team now that the tournament is here.

“We just can’t wait to play,” George Zidek said. “We need to put everything that has happened behind our backs.”

Maybe UCLA should forget the good things, too, like the 75-72 victory over Louisville, which is seeded third in the West.

Or the consecutive victories over Arizona and Arizona State.

Or the comeback victory at Washington State.

Pete Dalis, UCLA’s athletic director, said he had thought before the season that the Bruins would challenge for the conference championship and that their 14-0 start did nothing to raise his expectations.

Dalis had no public opinion on UCLA’s play this season and would not discuss Harrick’s performance until after the tournament.

He said UCLA’s “artificially weak” schedule contributed to the 14-0 start.

“It didn’t really give you a good sense of what the team was about,” he said.

What the Bruins actually were about was inconsistency. Team leaders Ed O’Bannon and Tyus Edney spoke out on many occasions in the second half of the season on the subject of playing hard and emotionally every game.

“I always expect us to come out and play with a lot of emotion,” O’Bannon said. “When we do, it carries over.”

And when they don’t, the results are often disastrous. The Oregon game was a picture of what went wrong for the Bruins.

O’Bannon got off to another slow start, the rest of the team joined him and UCLA trailed at the half. O’Bannon, who’d had six points and four turnovers in the first half of a narrow victory over last-place Oregon State, had one basket, one rebound and four turnovers in the first half against Oregon.

It got worse for UCLA at the end. The Bruins missed 10 of their last 11 shots and committed six turnovers.

Coaches will tell you that missed shots can happen to anyone, but 20 turnovers against one of the worst defensive teams in the conference? That generally indicates a lack of execution stemming either from lack of focus or inadequate preparation.

Former Bruin star Bill Walton says Harrick is to blame.

“Once again, college basketball’s championship will be decided without UCLA,” he said. “How disappointing. Maybe not as much of a disappointment as the coach complaining about the officiating and whining about the team’s lack of emotional commitment and not being prepared.

“Bruin pride is being stretched to the limit.”

Harrick, however, is taking UCLA to the NCAA tournament for the sixth time in six years and has won at least 20 games each season since he arrived on the Westwood campus in 1988.

As far as predictions go, Harrick doesn’t share anyone’s pessimism about UCLA’s chances, at least for the record.

“We’ll be all right,” he said.

If so, they’ll have to get well in a hurry. One remedy for Bruin ailments is to get some production from the bench, which has contributed almost nothing recently.

The Bruins have discovered that freshman Cameron Dollar is valuable in trying to unplug a continually stopped-up half-court offense because with Edney he gives UCLA two playmakers.

But Dollar is foul-prone. Backup center Rodney Zimmerman hasn’t been the same since he injured his back before the Notre Dame game, Marquis Burns doesn’t play much and Kevin Dempsey has played his way to the end of the bench. There isn’t anybody else.

The Bruins ought to benefit from Tulsa’s up-tempo style of play and also from a height advantage. But the Bruins must make some adjustments on their own if they are going to survive.

UCLA must put a premium on handling the ball and cut down on turnovers.

Ed O’Bannon has to score and rebound, Charles O’Bannon has to play defense, rebound and stay out of foul trouble, and Shon Tarver has to play well away from Pauley Pavilion, which he has had trouble doing.

Zidek needs to stay on the court and be a force inside and Edney must stay under control and make good decisions when he penetrates. When Edney drives, the Bruins have to keep good floor balance so they don’t give up layups.

But more than anything else, the Bruins have to play with aggressiveness. They need to go after loose balls, try for every rebound, actually look at whom they are passing the ball to, play as if they intend to win.

If they don’t, they’re going to be out of the tournament before you can spell Oklahoma.