ADMIT IT, THESE BRUINS JUST AREN'T VERY GOOD.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

The refrain has grown old now. It doesn't sell, no longer feels the comfortable fit. We no longer believe.

All season as the Bruins stumbled about - looking impressive one night, looking lost the next - we've been hearing it.

They'll get it together come tournament time. It's been the history of beleaguered coach Steve Lavin. They might stumble into the postseason but, boy, do they turn it on then! Four Sweet Sixteen appearances in five years! They understand what's important. Just you wait.

Even after they left the Staples Center floor Thursday night looking bewildered in their 67-61 loss to Cal in the Pacific-10 Conference tournament, they were still saying it.

``We've played our best ball during times like this when we were being counted out,'' Bruins forward Jason Kapono said.

Sorry, but there never has been a time quite like this. Never been a Lavin team so totally disappointing. A team that after playing over four months, continues to search for itself.

Don't expect some miraculous turnaround in the NCAA Tournament this time. The Bruins have offered no indication they are a team anywhere near being able to peak when it matters.

They haven't suddenly discovered Billy Knight, the shooter. Don't have JaRon Rush returning. Don't have any cause to believe things are about to go right.

It's actually the contrary. The Bruins are sliding into the postseason. They appear less confident by the game. Like a team that's never recovered from blowing that 20-point, second-half lead at Arizona. They've lost eight of their 14 since.

There is no magic switch to turn. No tournament aura that suddenly will elevate their play. No reason to suspect they can win more than maybe one game in the tournament.

As the season has progressed, instead of being mollified, their weaknesses have become more apparent.

Thirty games into it, and they still have no point guard. Ballyhooed freshman Cedric Bozeman might have talent, but he looks nothing like a point guard. That requires being able to dribble. And pass. And control the game.

Bozeman hasn't developed; sadly, he's regressed. A frequent complaint of Lavin players. You just hope Bozeman is somehow able to build on this season, because right now he looks like a player without a shred of confidence.

Suddenly - in the last two games? - redshirt freshman Ryan Walcott, who saw precious little playing time throughout most of the season, is playing more at the point than Bozeman. Playing better, too, but that's highly relative.

Anyone really think Walcott's NCAA Tournament-ready?

Anyone think the Bruins are?

It's impossible to simply write them off, but the team that beat Kansas seems a lifetime ago. They're there somewhere, but it's foolish to believe this team suddenly will find itself just because recent UCLA teams did in the tournament.

Lavin keeps telling us how his other Bruin teams entered the tournament off disappointments - and three of them ended the regular season on losses - but no team really compared to the way this one has slipped.

Last season, UCLA won nine of its last 11 regular-season games prior to the tournament. The season before they entered on a 6-0 run. In 1998-99 it was 5-1.

This team just revamped its offense, and I'm thinking the new one isn't wowing the selection committee. The Bruins could be looking at an eighth seed - which means playing a No. 1 in the second round - or even lower.

The common cry is to call for Lavin's head. His recruits all look like the same kind of player. He didn't successfully recruit a point guard for three years. His teams often look uncertain what they're supposed to be doing on offense. They're underwhelming defensively.

But UCLA's going to get a new athletic director this summer, and you have to think his first move isn't going to be canning the basketball coach. Lavin's not going anywhere.

Much like the Bruins.

People love to talk about how talented UCLA is, like it has this incredible ability edge. Truth is, the Bruins are not that good. They're not more athletic that USC or Oregon or a host of other West Coast schools.

And they're not suddenly going to look like it next week.