It’s as if They Had a Coach on the Floor

His legs were bowed, his arms spread, his hands flapping.

For 40 minutes Saturday, bouncing and sweating and screaming along the Pauley Pavilion floor, the UCLA star played the defense of his life.

And that was just their coach.

As Ben Howland preached, so the Bruins practiced, taking a huge step Saturday with long moments of fortitude that covered Wooden Court in a steely resolve.

Big Dance, meet the Big Stance.

UCLA is surely headed back to the NCAA tournament for the first time in three years thanks to the sort of defense not seen around here since Ken Norton Jr. crossed town.

The invitation is not official, but should be after the Bruins’ 73-61 victory over Oregon ended their regular season with a fang.

It was the lowest total for an opponent in a Pauley finale in 14 years.

It was the third consecutive game in which the Bruins have held their opponents under 66 points.

Arron Afflalo grabbed, Michael Fey grinded, Dijon Thompson clutched two fewer defensive rebounds than the entire Oregon team combined.

And Howland, well, um, danced?

Having amazingly convinced one of the most offensively talented young teams in the country that it cannot win without defense, he cemented those theories Saturday with positive reinforcement.

As in, he looked positively hilarious.

One moment he was sliding in front of the UCLA bench with his hands in the air as if drying them. The next moment he was throwing out his elbows as if attacking an invisible blocking sled.

Moving up and down the sidelines, he actually looks as though he is playing defense, right down to the stiff back and short steps and shouts.

“Our sixth man,” Dijon Thompson said with a grin.

A Sweet 16 man, if his team can keep this up.

“Sometimes I think Coach Howland actually wants to be in the game,” Brian Morrison said with another grin.

That would be interesting, if only to watch him yell at himself.

“Yeah, he yells a lot about defense,” Josh Shipp said. “What? I don’t remember anything in particular. He just yells.”

And it just works; witness the end of the first half that changed the game.

With the score tied, 26-26, with its season on the line, Oregon scored on one of its final six trips to the basket.

Quick-miss jumper. Traveling. Quick-miss three-point attempt. Quick-miss jumper. Quick-miss jumper.

Meanwhile, the Bruins were methodically scoring on six of their final seven possessions, taking a 10-point lead that was never seriously threatened.

It’s not Hollywood, it’s Howlandwood, but it works.

“Defense is a hard sell to anybody; we all like to score,” Thompson said. “But there’s no getting around it. If you don’t play defense around here, you’re going to hear about it.”

And now, in statistics as unusual around here as cardinal paint, you can even see it.

Before Saturday’s game, the Bruins led the conference in defensive rebounds and were third in rebounding margin ... with an inside game that was last in blocked shots.

In other words, hype and high flying have been replaced by hustle and hustle. Whatever Howland is doing behind those locked doors at practice, here’s guessing it involves more Neosporin than neon.

“I’m not sure I really get into a stance, do I?” Howland said afterward with a sweaty smile.

At the risk of being ordered to run suicides, well, yes.

“I guess it just shows how much I really, really want to help these guys win,” he said. “I’m so proud of them. I’ll do anything for them.”

He’ll even admit when he was wrong, a rare occurrence in big-time college coaching, but something Howland faced after the Bruins gave up 85 points in losing their conference opener at Oregon State.

That night he ordered a zone defense.

This, from a guy who lives a man-to-man life, unafraid to confront his players or critics or convention.

He later admitted he blew it. He says he might have cost his team the game, and has since returned to his roots.

“I like the responsibility of it,” Howland said. “Everybody has their man, everybody has to take that responsibility.”

The players have embraced it such that, even with three freshmen, they had the nation’s 30th-ranked RPI in the nation’s second-ranked conference before Saturday.

This 18th win should bolster that enough to surely ensure an NCAA tournament spot, even if they can’t survive Oregon State in what should be the closest first-round game in the Pac-10 tournament.

The same Oregon State team that they held to 61 points on Thursday.

“Defense is what wins,” Howland said Saturday evening. “Defense is our constant. Night in, night out.”

With that, he smiled, the Bruins’ best defender having stolen at least a couple of more of those nights.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. For previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.