NO. 1 IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

ANAHEIM - Get around this right now: Looking for a finished product, all bronzed and polished and ready for banners, then check back in four months.

There is no perfect basketball team out there right now, just unbeaten ones.

Currently the polls claim the UCLA Bruins as the finest college basketball team in the land, and maybe they are, too. Then again, maybe they're not. But right now, in the middle of December, they're as good a candidate as anyone to carry the early banner.

They're unbeaten, deep, coming off a title-game appearance and returning plenty of veteran players.

They are certainly not some finished product. Not some powerhouse team that is just going to roll over every opponent. Not some John Wooden super team that will leave opponents quaking in dark arena tunnels.

They are very good, though, and perhaps most encouraging, capable of getting much better.

That was on display Saturday afternoon when No.6Texas A&M, their highest-ranked opponent yet, pushed and shoved and dangled UCLA from the edge of unbeatens, only for the Bruins to pull out a 65-62 victory.

UCLA, No.1 team in the nation?

``I don't know, I haven't seen everybody but that's sure a great team,'' said Aggies star guard Acie Law. ``Nobody's playing at their best yet, but they're a very talented team. I would look for them go far in the tournament.''

Certainly Saturday's victory was not always a thing of beauty. The Bruins were outrebounded by the physical Aggies 34-23. They struggled to establish an inside game. Struggled most of the first half to hit a simple jumper. Hit only 50 percent of their free throws.

Yet if the Bruins offered reason to be cautious in their acclaim, they also did plenty of very good things to offer reason to believe.

Even with the loss of Jordan Farmar, Cedric Bozeman and Ryan Hollins to the NBA, the Bruins are still playing the type of suffocating defense that was the hallmark of their tournament run.

They forced 20 A&M turnovers.

``The turnovers were the key to the game,'' Aggies coach Billy Gillispie said. ``It was like we couldn't dribble the ball.''

The Bruins made 7 of 153-pointers, including two in the final 22 seconds of the first half by Darren Collison. They had 12 fastbreak points to just four by the Aggies.

Eight Bruins contributed to the scoring.

``That's a great team,'' Gillispie said. ``They're unbelievably well coached, and that's why they played for the title last year. They don't have too many weaknesses.''

The Aggies were offered as the first real test of the season for the Bruins, who had previously defeated then-No.19 Georgia Tech and then-No.20 Kentucky at the Maui Invitational.

This was their first top-10 opponent.

The Aggies, however, had already suffered their first loss of the season Tuesday, falling 64-52 to No. 9 LSU, which is essentially the same LSU team UCLA defeated in last season's Final Four.

``They were coming off that loss to LSU, so we knew we were going to get their best effort,'' UCLA's Josh Shipp said.

Actually, that's something the Bruins are going to have to get used to every night. Certainly as long as they are ranked No. 1 in the polls.

When a team has the opportunity to defeat the No.1team in the nation, it's blitzkrieg time. An all-out assault, no effort left behind.

``I think that's only natural,'' UCLA coach Ben Howland said. ``When you're No. 1, people want to knock you off. If they had beat us today, it would have been all over the media.''

The Aggies gave it their best shot. Joseph Jones led the attack on the boards, grabbing 13 rebounds, seven on the offensive end. Law led all scorers with 21 points, making jumpers and connecting on drives as Jones perfected the moving screen. Dominique Kirk made four of five jumpers, including both of his 3-point attempts.

The Aggies also played a tenacious defense that had to look vaguely familiar to UCLA.

``This was two really good teams battling on a national stage,'' Howland said.

It was two highly ranked teams playing hard, each unable to pull away from the other, taking turns looking both brilliant and humble.

The first game at the Honda Center -- formerly the Arrowhead Pond and home to the former Mighty Ducks, who are now just Ducks, though they have never looked quite so mighty as now -- saw the Bruins lead almost the entire game.

Yet they could never seize control, never really establish any consistent offensive rhythm, their outside shooting deserting them in the first half.

The Bruins got little offense again from Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (2 of 8, tworebounds). Center Lorenzo Mata played tough inside against Jones but had only fourrebounds.

Yet there was easily more good than bad, more to be pleased with than disappointed.

UCLA has enough talented veterans that it is ahead of most teams right now and as deserving as anyone of the their No. 1 status.

``We're honored (to be No.1),'' Howland said. ``It's great for the program, but the only time it really matters is on April 2.''

The Bruins figure to improve, but so will most other good teams. Yet right now it's December and the Bruins are the No. 1 ranked in the country, and that's OK.

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