Back in the John Wooden era, the Bruins won all the time, so much so it would be unthinkable for the fans students mostly, of course to storm the floor following a UCLA victory.

Today, however, that’s how it is in Westwood, one of the endless L.A. suburbs where UCLA is located

After the Bruins toppled Kansas, 87-77, the floor was flooded with the euphoric faithful who two days earlier had suffered through the ignominy of the Bruins losing by four points to cross-megalopolis rival Southern Cal.

In essence, that is UCLA basketball in the Steve Lavin era. Lose a big one, win a big one. Win another big one, lose a little one. UCLA has been an enigma since the John Wooden era, especially so under Lavin. Lavin never knows which UCLA team will show up the world-beaters or the ragamuffins.

The world-beaters showed up Saturday afternoon and knocked off the No. 1-ranked team in the country, at least in the Associated Press poll. UCLA did it by forcing the Jayhawks into 21 turnovers and by shooting 52.6 percent.

“Their offense was stronger than our defense,” KU coach Roy Williams said, “and their defense was better than our offense.”

No sense complicating the Jayhawks’ second loss of the season. Williams summed it up in one long sentence.

Not that anyone will remember least of all the AP poll voters who will dun the Jayhawks and reward the Bruins on Monday but Kansas actually won about three-fourths of Saturday’s contest. A terrible last 10 minutes of the first half when KU missed 11 of 13 shots and committed seven turnovers were, in the final analysis, fatal.

Every team, whether ranked No. 1 or ranked not at all, will have good stretches and bad stretches. Sometimes the bad overwhelms the good. Thus the Jayhawks’ second-half comeback, while stirring, was meaningless.

“It was a great, consistent comeback,” Williams said. “We kept plugging away. It was 80-77 and the whistle blows. We think its a foul and it’s a walk.”

Who knows what would have happened if Nick Collison, who probably played his worst overall game of the season (six points, five fouls, three turnovers and just one rebound), hadn’t been called for a travel with about a minute and a half remaining?

Kansas maybe could have manufactured one of the most stirring away-from-home comebacks in school history. But the 15-point leads the Bruins forged a couple of times were ultimately insurmountable.

For Kansas, leading the nation in scoring, to score a season-low 77 points is directly attributable to UCLA’s defense. The Bruins have the quickness and size, especially in the backcourt, to force errant outside shots and turnovers by clogging the passing lanes. Curiously, KU’s Kirk Hinrich made five of six three-point attempts even though he shot the majority of them from way beyond the 19-foot, 9-inch arc.

Meanwhile, Jeff Boschee, who has always struggled when guarded by taller defenders, made just three of 11 from three-point range. Boschee was open on a few of those 11 attempts, but most of the time he had either a hand or a forearm in his face.

Williams had watched a tape of the Bruins’ 81-77 loss to USC and, in retrospect, that may have been a mistake, although an understandable one. You have to figure a basketball team will play its best against its geographic rival, but the paradoxical Bruins did not for whatever reason.

“They were so much more active than they were on tape the other night,” Williams said.

In the big picture, Saturday’s defeat inflicted little or no damage. Kansas will no longer carry the yoke of its No. 1 ranking always a blessing and the Jayhawks can now concentrate on the conference season.

The next five games, starting with Oklahoma State on Tuesday night, will continue the roughest stretch in the Jayhawks’ schedule and, if nothing else, Saturday in Pauley Pavilion reminded KU’s players they’re touchable if they don’t play a full 40 minutes.