Suddenly, the Outlook in Westwood Is Rosier

The cure for UCLA’s whopping football hangover became as obvious as 11,453 people rattling an old campus building Saturday night.

Of course.

Just roll out a basketball.

Rose Bowl, schmoze bowl, the entire thing was forgotten about five rip-roaring minutes into UCLA’s 82-75 defeat of unbeaten and sixth-ranked Arizona at Pauley Pavilion.

It disappeared like Baron Davis’ no-look assists through three players.

It was buried like Jerome Moiso’s rainbow three-point basket.

It was jammed into oblivion like Dan Gadzuric’s dunks.

It was wiped away with the uniforms of countless Bruins diving across the floor after countless loose balls.

A school badly in need of a catharsis received one from a young basketball team that picked the perfect time to wear its heart on its, well, its tattoos.

“We felt bad for the football team, we sat in our locker room [Friday] and watched it all,” forward Rico Hines said. “We knew everyone was down. We knew people wanted to come out and see a big-time basketball game. We wanted to give it to them.”

That they did, despite a starting lineup that included a non-scholarship forward, despite blowing most of a 21-point lead and surviving a furious finish that has decimated some Steve Lavin teams in the past.

“We think we can bring that magic back to Westwood,” Hines said.

Awakened by a suspension and two benchings by Lavin, inspired by a rollicking crowd that hadn’t cheered like this since before its football team played Miami last month, the Bruins ultimately calmed everyone with a special New Year’s greeting.

They are kids, and often will continue to play and behave like kids.

But they are getting better.

And at this rate, by the end of the year, perhaps they will be kids no more.

“We needed to show we can play with top 10 teams,” Moiso said. “I think this showed it.”

More impressive than the way the Bruins blew to a 21-point lead against an equally young Arizona team Saturday was the way they clung to any sort of lead in the end.

Just last spring, a Lute Olson-coached club calmly watched the Bruins take a 15-point lead in the first half before outclassing Lavin’s team by four points in the end.

This was almost that when, with 31 seconds remaining, Earl Watson threw a ball into the stands and players started yelling at one another and Michael Wright made a layup to pull the Wildcats within five.

But this time, UCLA has a more-mature Davis to control the outside. A lanky Moiso to watch the inside. A more-confident Watson to play defense.

And the Bruins somehow survived, with Davis making a free throw and Watson knocking the ball from Jason Terry’s hands and Moiso grabbing a big rebound.

This first Pac-10 game will not be their toughest, not in a conference in which Arizona might only be the fourth-best team.

But it might be their most emotional.

And for a team that will use five freshmen, that hurdle was just as large.

“The good thing about playing Arizona so quickly is that it gives us a report card, a measuring stick to find out where we’re at,” Lavin had said beforehand.

If nothing else, give them an “A” for timing.

The UCLA athletic reputation was smarting from the end-of-season collapse of its national championship-contending football team.

The UCLA fans’ reputation was hurting after they were outnumbered and outshouted by Wisconsin fans at the Rose Bowl.

Saturday could have been the beginning of a long, dark winter around Westwood.

And then Sean Farnham ran through a tunnel of Bruin teammates to the center of the court, and flexed his arms, and shouted like the building was on fire, and everything was right in the gritty-again Bruin world.

Sean Farnham?

Yep. The junior forward with no career starts and only 25 career games and a scoring average of less than one was placed in the starting lineup after Lavin became mad at a couple of his hotshot freshmen.

JaRon Rush had been suspended, and Moiso and Gadzuric had been benched for not practicing earlier in the week.

So that left a guy so unknown, for once the student section could have chanted, “Who’s he?” and actually meant it.

But Farnham didn’t care. He was hopping, and howling, and the emotion spread. By the time he left the floor about four minutes later to a big game-ending bear hug from Lavin--there was still 16:13 remaining in the first half--the Bruins led, 13-4.

Heck, he even scored on a layup.

Not bad for a walk-on who, after receiving scholarship money his first two seasons, was cut off this year after Lavin needed it all to collect what many consider the best recruiting class in the country.

“I know with all of our great players, my job is not to score,” Farnham said with a grin. “Tonight, they just wanted me to bring energy.”

After that, shoot, it was easy.

Davis showed why he will be the best player on many courts this year with flying shots and stern leadership.

Gadzuric and Moiso showed why this twin-tower concept can be more than a cliche.

With their hustle, everyone showed how Lavin’s sternness has not turned them off, but inspired them.

“We talked to the team about the kind of things we can control,” Lavin said. “We said, ‘We can play like a buzz saw for 40 minutes. We can bring concentration for 40 minutes.’ ”

And, amazingly, at least for one night, they could make everyone forget about a football team that didn’t.

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