Second wind saves UCLA

December Madness, this was.

A college basketball game played between a dominating team and a darling one, played in the middle of the afternoon, played at a giant gym that will actually play host to the first two rounds of next spring’s tournament.

Big Dance dress rehearsal, this was.

UCLA came out with its evil stare, Davidson came out in its slippers, and you know what happened next.

Six minutes left in the first half Saturday, Davidson led by 18 points, and the Honda Center was silent except for Kevin Love’s giant breaths and Ben Howland’s angry stomps.

Three-pointers falling, backdoor passes screeching, bracket-busting, seed-scrambling, pumpkin-riding, mid-major-mashing . . .

Wait a minute.

Was that a UCLA shrug?

“Been there, done that,” said Josh Shipp.

Was that a UCLA sigh?

“One thing you know about Coach Howland -- you follow his directions, you’re going to win,” said Luc Richard Mbah a Moute.

Was that a lunging UCLA steal? And another? And another?

Was that a bruising UCLA rebound and soft layup? And another one? And another layup?

Was that John Wooden being lifted to his feet to acknowledge a standing ovation?

Was that Wooden later saying it was he who was proud?

What happened to the Bruins in the first part of Saturday’s John R. Wooden Classic game happens to many great teams in the NCAA tournament.

What happened next happens to only the best ones.

One minute, UCLA was on the verge of being chased back up the freeway by a smart and skilled group that has already come close to beating both North Carolina and Duke.

The next minute, the Bruins were pounding the tiny liberal arts out of them.

UCLA ended the first half on a 16-2 run and ended the game on a 61-31 run, wiping out Davidson, 75-63, while putting a smile on an old coach’s face.

Yes, the 97-year-old Wooden insisted on walking to the center of the court to congratulate the Bruins on their victory.

And, yes, he agreed to give them another pep talk.

“We get behind, but we don’t give up,” he announced over the loudspeaker. “I’m very proud of them.”

Wooden left the arena slowly, carefully, on a golf cart.

His basketball team -- and this will always be his basketball team -- buzzed away on a wondrous promise.

They are good. They are very good.

It says here they are good enough to take the one step that has eluded them, after consecutive years of losing in the Final Four to eventual national champion Florida.

It says here they are good enough to take that final step, and be that final team.

“We have the potential,” Howland said after his team improved to 8-1. “We should be better.”

That potential was everywhere on a December in Anaheim that ended up feeling like April in San Antonio. You could see it in Mbah a Moute’s calm smile, in Russell Westbrook’s furious feet, in the blank look on the face of stately Davidson Coach Bob McKillop.

“We got outfought,” McKillop said.

Howland’s Bruins have always outfought the other guys.

But this season, they’re doing it with less plodding, and with more than jabs.

This team has the wild hook of a Westbrook-to-Darren Collison fastbreak.

This team has the bob and weave of a Love behind-the-back bounce pass.

This team not only has the relentless defense of past seasons, but a varied offense that makes all that work worth it.

More than anything, this team has the stare.

In past years, during troubled times, the Bruins would always look over at Howland for help.

On Saturday, they looked at each other, then looked at their falling opponents, then calmly finished them.

“It comes from them having success, from understanding the formula,” Howland said.

Of the eight players who played for the Bruins, all but freshman Love have been to at least one Final Four.

Some folks thought Love would be this season’s difference but, on Saturday, experience was the difference, everyone around him older and smarter and stronger.

They don’t get rattled. They don’t need reminding.

They occasionally fool around and get sloppy and forgetful like college kids will do. But they never stray from a mantra that Howland, in his fifth season here, has indelibly etched into everything from their vision to their vocabulary.

“It starts with defense,” said Mbah a Moute, who led the UCLA comeback and scored 21 points. “Everything we do on offense, everything in the game, starts with defense.”

This would explain, perhaps, that string of nine scoreless possessions by Davidson. During that same period, the Bruins were rattling off a dozen consecutive possessions on which they scored every time.

Typical of the comeback was a Westbrook steal, followed by a pass to Mbah a Moute, who drove so hard to the basket that he knocked Davidson’s Jason Richards into a press table, spraying coffee everywhere.

The layup was good. The foul was called. The free throw was made.

“You like those and-ones,” Mbah a Moute said with a grin.

The Bruins more than doubled Davidson in rebounding, 37-18, while outscoring the Wildcats, 20-0, in second-chance points.

That’s right, not once did a Davidson player grab an offensive rebound and score.

“Ben Howland has a very tough team,” repeated McKillop, shaking his head.

Early in the game, with the Wildcats running wildly ahead, a fan seated in the small Davidson contingent gleefully waved a red sign.

Davidson vs. Goliath.

Yes, the Bruins are officially Goliath.

But, no, it’s going to take more than a stone.

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

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Through the years

UCLA has an 8-3 record in the John R. Wooden Classic:

* 2007: UCLA 75, Davidson 63

* 2006: UCLA 65, Texas A&M; 62

* 2005: UCLA 67, Nevada 56

* 2004: Boston College 74, UCLA 64

* 2003: Kentucky 52, UCLA 50

* 2001: UCLA 79, Alabama 57

* 2000: Georgia Tech 72, UCLA 67

* 1998: UCLA 69, Oklahoma State 66

* 1997: UCLA 69, New Mexico 58

* 1995: UCLA 73, Maryland 63

* 1994: UCLA 82, Kentucky 81

Los Angeles Times