No mystique about it after UCLA’s defeat

So distressed was UCLA junior guard Arron Afflalo over the Bruins’ myth-busting loss to Oregon last Saturday that he shed tears afterward.

The secret, he knew, was out: UCLA was not invincible.

“When a team beats you, it gives everybody else hope,” Afflalo said this week, the Bruins no longer unbeaten or top-ranked as they prepare for Saturday’s game against USC in the Galen Center. “You don’t want that. ...

“These teams think, with Oregon beating us, that we’re beatable,” he added. “And I don’t want that mentality coming into our team. So my job now -- and the rest of the team’s job -- is to go in there and prove that we’re still the best.”

Doing that, the Bruins agreed, will require shoring up a defensive weakness exposed by Oregon in its 68-66 victory at Eugene: UCLA’s inability to stop penetration by the Ducks’ guards, especially Aaron Brooks, who scored 25 points and zipped past Darren Collison for the game-winning 12-foot jump shot.

“We didn’t do a good job of staying in front of the ball,” Coach Ben Howland said. “Brooks continually beat us off the dribble. ...

“We’ve had other teams that have been driving on us. For Darren, he gets too close to his man; he’s got to try to stay an arm’s distance away and keep a little more of a gap when he’s guarding.

“In retrospect, I kick myself for taking Afflalo off [Brooks]. We should have left Arron on him because Arron is the one guy on our team that takes it personally when anything happens when he’s guarding someone.”

Afflalo saw similarities between Saturday’s loss and the Bruins’ most recent regular-season defeat before it, 71-68 to USC last Feb. 19.

“A little bit, because of the fact we were penetrated so easily,” he said. “Regardless if you’re on your home floor, regardless if you’ve got fans behind you, there are principles you follow: Keep your man in front of you, contest all shots. I don’t think we did a good job of that last game, and it hurt us.”

Similarly, Afflalo said, USC “penetrated at will” against the Bruins last February at the Sports Arena, Trojans guards Ryan Francis and Dwayne Shackleford combining for 24 points and USC making 56% of its shots.

“We had done a successful job against SC here at home,” Afflalo said, “so for them to do that at their house, our focus just wasn’t there.”

It was there the rest of the season. The Bruins rallied from their loss at USC to win their next 12 games, claim the Pacific 10 Conference regular-season and tournament championships and reach the national championship game.

“We took a stand,” Afflalo said, “as to our focus on how we’re going to defend, how we’re going to help each other out at that end of the floor.”

It carried over into this season during the Bruins’ 14-0 start.

“I think our defensive intensity’s been good for the most part,” Howland said. “I think it’s been very good. We force so many more turnovers than we did a year ago at this time. If you compare where we are now to a year ago, we’re much better.”

Oregon, the Bruins hope, was only a bump in the road.

“When you become so accustomed to winning, that becomes a part of you,” Afflalo said. “And any time someone breaks that, you don’t want any doubt. You don’t want any doubt within your team, within your family, and we don’t have any.”

jerome.crowe@latimes.com