It’s Deja Blue in UCLA Loss

The black-shirted student section at Maples Pavilion--the silliest smart people on the planet--has this little game it plays with Stanford opponents who foul out.

When the fifth foul is announced, the students immediately begin following the player’s every move to the bench, step by step.

“Left . . . right . . . left . . . right,” they chant, before finishing with a roaring, “Sit down” when the player takes his seat.

With 13 seconds remaining in Stanford’s 77-73 victory over UCLA on Thursday, they played this with Baron Davis.

Only, he played it better.

He hopped for several steps on his right foot. Stutter-stepped with his left foot. Left the fans tongue-tied and laughing.

Then just as he appeared to be settling in his seat and the fans yelled, “Sit down,” he stood up and defiantly stared.

And 7,391 fans who had spent the previous two hours booing and razzing the Bruins cheered.

It was that kind of night here during a Bruin stumble that looked strangely like a step forward.

In a most vulnerable place, at a most vulnerable time, the vulnerable Bruins did not collapse.

For the first time this year, they showed they can take a punch.

For the first time this year, they showed that maybe they are growing up.

“We’re learning,” said JaRon Rush, out of the doghouse and back into the spotlight with 20 points and 11 rebounds. “We still have a long way to go but you could tell tonight, we’re learning.”

This doesn’t mean the fans watching on TV back home didn’t want to strangle somebody when they took a wild shot during the first five seconds of the shot clock . . . or committed a silly foul on a guy near half court . . . or threw up crazy three-pointers when they didn’t need a three-pointer.

This doesn’t mean you couldn’t still watch these Bruins rattling around the well-schooled Cardinal, losing to them for the fifth time in six games during the Steve Lavin regime, and think, Don’t they ever practice?

“We do still kind of stand around sometimes and just watch guys create,” Rush said. “Sort of like when we were in high school and AAU. We still need to learn that.”

This still doesn’t mean you didn’t throw up your hands during a first-half sequence that, believe it or not, may have helped decide the game.

The Bruins jumped out to a 9-4 lead, and held Stanford scoreless on six consecutive possessions.

But what did they do offensively during those possessions?

Jerome Moiso, supposedly the center, threw up a wild three-point attempt. Then another.

Then Rush missed a three-point shot.

Then Rush missed on a wild alley-oop pass.

This is not, perhaps, the way you manage an early lead in a hostile environment.

This is not how you want them handling leads in March.

But more important than what they did do was what they didn’t do. They didn’t melt down.

They had 16 more fouls than Stanford, but the only coach banging the press table was Stanford’s Mike Montgomery.

They were seemingly out of the game several times in the final minutes, but keep throwing in shots to keep them afloat.

Baron Davis one time. Earl Watson the next time.

Unlike the last time they played Stanford, this game did not end with less than a second remaining.

This didn’t end until the clock ended.

“I think they’re making progress to the point where they’re a very good basketball team,” Montgomery said.

Agreed Lavin: “I’m proud of our players’ effort. I thought they showed good composure and poise in one of the toughest college basketball environments in the country.”

And it could have been so much different, this last big test before the season finale at Arizona.

The last time they were on the road, Lavin and Davis embarrassed themselves during a 93-83 loss to Washington.

The last time they played Stanford, the entire roster and fans looked bad in that 72-59 loss that was stopped with seventh-tenths of a second because of debris thrown on the Pauley Pavilion floor.

Then they take the floor at a 30-year-old gym where the fans are breathing on you and the floor bounces like a trampoline?

Students in black shirts chant. Somewhere in the sweaty mass is a dancing tree, cheerleaders who wear Gilligan hats, and the president’s daughter.

“You stink, you’re nothing!” they chanted at Davis.

Forty-five minutes before the game.

“Whin-er, whin-er,” they also chanted at Davis.

“Home-sick, home-sick,” they chanted at Rush.

“To-by’s better, To-by’s better,” they chanted at Ryan Bailey.

Afterward, Rush just smiled.

“All we’ve been through?” he said. “That stuff doesn’t bother us anymore. None of it. Not now.”

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