Bruins Exorcise Their Demons

Only Steve Lavin, it seems, would celebrate the first big win of his season by sharing it with the only sports figure in town more harassed than him.

Lavin stood in front of his UCLA basketball team in their Pauley Pavilion locker room after Saturday’s 76-58 victory over DePaul and pointed to the mustachioed man next to him.

“Guys,” he said, “I want you to meet Kevin Malone.”

Only Lavin, it seems, would recognize the symbolism of the situation.

“Now all we need is Paul Hackett in here to complete the Bull’s-Eye Club,” he told his team.

They all laughed, Malone led them in a cheer, then the Dodger general manager traded Jason Kapono to USC for an orange water bucket.

Well, OK, that last part is a joke, but everyone was in a good mood Saturday, and for good reason. In one 48-hour period, Malone had acquired Orel Hershiser while buddy Lavin fought off the bulldogs.

The bite marks on Lavin’s heels being fresher, we’ll focus on him.

A victory over a team that behaved as if it were still on the Chicago playgrounds doesn’t mean Lavin is suddenly John Wooden, or even John Thompson.

A victory against a confused system run by travel-weary athletes doesn’t mean everyone who criticized Lavin last week must now stand underneath a Dan Gadzuric dunk.

This victory, like the embarrassing loss against Gonzaga last week, is only one step toward discovering the answer of whether Steve Lavin can coach.

But it did address whether he can take a punch.

He can.

Reaffirming his ability to turn criticism into motivation--an ability that carried his team through the NCAA tournament in his first two years--Lavin was once again at his best when his situation was at its worst.

“Look at this,” he said afterward, pointing to numerous policemen standing around him on the emptying court. “I had to call in the reserves. If we had lost this game, I was going to need protection from a swat team.”

He noted that longtime girlfriend Treena Camacho was concerned about the headlines that asked, “But can he coach?”

Said Lavin: “She thought everybody was asking the wrong question. She thought the question should be, ‘But can he cook? But can he do laundry? But can he take out the garbage?’ ”

Lavin laughed, just as he had been laughing late in the game from the bench. From the time the Bruins unleashed a 16-0 run early in the second half, there was a sense that his team was laughing with him.

In the end, this was not so much a victory as a two-hour sigh of relief.

“This week was bad, real bad,” guard Ryan Bailey said. “It was like the end of the world around here. Coach was obviously more stressed.”

But Bailey said that not once did Lavin lay his troubles on them.

“He took it all on himself, took all the blame, he always takes all the blame,” Bailey said. “You see that, you want to play for the guy.”

As in past seasons, Lavin used his troubles as a prod. He took their failings on the basketball court and, well, changed the subject.

“I told my players, ‘This is not about one game, it is about resiliency, about something you’ll learn for the rest of your life,’ ” Lavin said. “I told them that years from now, the box score would be buried in some book. But they had a chance to remember this week for a long time.”

Lavin swings that backs-against-the-wall hammer as well as anyone.

The problem is, he has had a lot of practice.

During his career here, it seems like every inspirational victory like the one against DePaul has been preceded by a terrible loss like the one against Gonzaga.

His first season, the program is in turmoil, nobody thinks Lavin can coach in March, they make the Elite Eight.

His second season, Jelani McCoy quits, nobody thinks they can beat Michigan, they make the Sweet Sixteen.

Last season, the waters are calm, March is supposed to be good? They immediately lose.

The good news for Bruin fans is that Lavin is good at pulling their basketball team from the flames.

The bad news is that there are so many darn fires.

“I know, I need to get us on an even keel, I realize this,” Lavin admitted. “I am getting better as a coach. We are getting better as a staff. But we need to keep getting better, I know this.”

They did more than enough Saturday, setting up an offense that wore down DePaul’s zone, even occasionally with patience, especially when Bailey was running the show.

For the first time since their two foreign giants arrived in town last year, Jerome Moiso and Gadzuric actually played together on the court for more than a few minutes, and did so without inflicting harm on anybody but DePaul.

Then there was smooth-shooting Jason Kapono who, well, put it this way: The most mature player on the court was often the freshman.

The Bruins’ own matchup zone defense took care of the other end, relentlessly holding DePaul star Quentin Richardson to eight-for-23 shooting and the Blue Demons to three-for-22 shooting from outside the three-point arc.

UCLA still occasionally looked wild. Well, maybe more than occasionally, although, luckily, DePaul was considerably wilder.

At one late moment, when unselfishness was required to protect a lead, Earl Watson threw up a quick and bricked three-point attempt that caused what remained of 10,024 to loudly boo.

It was a reminder, in case anyone needed one, that Lavin and his veterans no longer have the benefit of the doubt around here.

Last week was no anomaly. If the Bruins so blatantly underachieve again, there will be many more loud and harassing weeks like it.

In fact, if the Bruins believe Saturday’s video highlights and don’t play well in a weak Hawaii tournament beginning Tuesday, the howling could start again as soon as next week.

“I’ve been around so many difficult times here, I understand how it works,” Lavin said. “My job is to put it into context for 18- and 19-year-old kids.”

On Saturday, they understood him perfectly.

The challenge is to do the same when the message isn’t so defined and desperate.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.