BRUINS TAKE BIG STEPS AFTER STANFORD STOMP.

Byline: Kevin Modesti

In Steve Lavin's fanciful stairway to college basketball heaven, the one drawn on the grease board in the Pauley Pavilion locker room, there are no steps down.

Instead, the steps, labeled with the names of UCLA's opponents this season, lead inexorably upward from the Nov. 7 intrasquad game to the March 29 NCAA Final in Indianapolis. There, the blueprint specifies, the Bruins are to be crowned national champions at precisely 10:17 p.m. EST.

``Do not erase, please,'' says a scrawl next to the staircase drawing. The signature, ``Lavin,'' is accompanied by a smiling face with hair.

This is the modern Pyramid of Success.

Unfortunately for UCLA's interim coach, real life hasn't always gone according to plan. The staircase has led the Bruins up and down, sometimes in dizzy spirals. In a recent game at Stanford, they stepped on a roller skate and tumbled head over heels.

But they have picked themselves up.

Bruised but unbroken, the Bruins capped a nine-day climb from a historic low to their season's high point on Saturday afternoon by defeating sixth-ranked Arizona 84-78 in overtime.

Nine days after that 42-point loss up North, the most one-sided ever for a Bruins team, they were at least temporarily alone in first place in the Pacific-10 Conference.

``Believe it or not,'' as Lavin put it.

It was their third straight victory following the Stanford stumble, the loss they had to put behind them.

It was their first victory against a ranked opponent this season - following resounding losses to No. 1 Kansas and No. 21 Stanford - and without it they could not have claimed to be a tournament team.

It was Lavin's first victory over a coach of Lute Olson's national stature - though young Lavin's praise for ``one of the great gentlemen of the game'' hardly seemed to fit with Olson's late-game outburst at the Pauley shot-clock operator.

It means these Bruins might have heart, after all.

They made 20 of 24 free throws in the last 10:44 (counting overtime). They avoided fouling for the last 11:09. They committed just one turnover in the last 10 minutes. Up till then, you could have spelled Toby Bailey with a capital TO.

They rescued their season. At least, they gave themselves a reprieve. Wait until Arizona gets them in Tucson on Feb. 13, or just until USC gets them at the Sports Arena on Thursday, before declaring this climb complete.

Still, it was UCLA's most important step yet.

``I'm very proud of our team,'' a hoarse Lavin said afterward, his pale-blue shirt soaked and untucked. ``They picked themselves off the floor at Maples Pavilion (at Stanford) and won three big conference games. Our kids came back fighting.

``A lot of people thought we were dead in the water, that we couldn't compete, that this team was in ruins.

``But day by day and inch by inch, we get a little better, and that's what coaching is all about.''

``One of the keys today was that our guys didn't get frustrated,'' Lavin added. ``We were down eight (60-52 with 7:01 to go in regulation). We could have folded like an accordion.''

Olson had praise for the Bruins and for Lavin, even though he was in a sarcastic mood after the 35-second clock was erroneously reset following a blocked UCLA shot late in overtime.

``They're playing hard. They're trying. They're trying to pass the ball,'' Olson said of the Bruins. ``There's nobody out there jacking the ball up.''

They are not at the top of the staircase - if they were, they would have put Arizona away during its seven-minute scoring drought in the first half, or after fouls claimed Wildcats starters Donnell Harris and Mike Bibby. But they can see the top from here.

``Like I told them (the players), we have a long, long way to go,'' Lavin said. ``It's back to the drawing board on Monday.''

There are 28 steps in the regular-season climb to a spot in the tournament. They're only halfway there. But they're on the move again.

Lavin's fantasy, the one on the grease board, is reality until further notice.

Do not erase, please.