A few weeks back, someone asked Ben Howland if he was surprised that UCLA was hosting one of the preseason NIT regionals after the Bruins went 14-18 last season, and his response went something like this: “No. We’re UCLA.”

My ears perked up a bit.

He went on to talk about how the team doesn’t need “gimmicks” to attract opponents and how people want to play UCLA, etc.

And that’s true.

To an extent.

UCLA is still UCLA, but that might mean more to Howland than it does to others.

The world has a short attention span these days. A decade might as well be a century. Last week? Who cares. Reputations can crumble in a day.

I couldn’t help but think back to the last two recruiting periods, when the Bruins whiffed on some guys who a lot of people thought they had little chance with in the first place. Some chance, for sure, on guys like Ray McCallum and Trey Zeigler, but definitely not “favorite” status. I always got the impression that Coach Howland was shocked that a top player could deign not sign with UCLA.

Then in last night’s press conference, Zeke Jones and Malcolm Lee talked about taking Montana lightly, and the team not giving full effort.

I think it’s all related.

Of all the major sports, college basketball in 2010 is the most “what-have-you-done-for-me-lately?” Why? Because in no other sport can a superstar player decide to opt-out after only one year with an organization.

NFL rookies are usually inked for several years. NBA rookies usually sign for three years. MLB players get long contracts, even as first-year players. NCAA football players have a mandatory three-year period.

But the one-and-done rule – and this isn’t a memorandum on that rule, which is a joke, but a joke for another time – has the ability to drastically change the landscape of a team in one season.

That sounds so obvious, and in recruiting, it is.

UCLA’s three-year run of Final Four appearances is absolutely amazing in today’s day and age. For that alone, Howland must be lauded. Forget that UCLA didn’t get over the hump, though I know that’s a lasting disappointment. Just getting to three straight Final Fours is stunning.

But the Bruins are in their third year removed from that. The hottest prospects, the college-bound superstars, were 12 when that started. They’re 17-18 now. I’m not saying they’ve forgotten – obviously they haven’t forgotten – but there have been some other very successful teams across the country over the last five years, too. Duke, North Carolina, Michigan State, Kansas, Memphis, the list goes on and on and on. And lets not pretend that UCLA hasn’t still had some very good classes, the 2008 class notwithstanding.

But college basketball is more than just recruiting. They have to play the games, too, and a coach must be accountable and self-reflective about his success.

UCLA had a bad, bad season last year, after a good season the year before. Goliath isn’t dead. Nowhere near dead. But the smallest trickle of blood is dripping from his arm. David can see that. A few years ago, there was no blood. Now there is. Not a ton, again, but there doesn’t need to be a ton to give a decent team – like a VCU or a Montana – the extra confidence to get over the hump against the Bruins.

* “We weren’t star struck by Pauley Pavilion.”

* “Yesterday in practice Coach told us, ‘You know the Bruins, they’re not unbeatable.'”

* “We could see it in their eyes after stop after stop, layup after layup, foul after foul. It looked like they were ready to give up.”

* “All in all, they were trying to come together, but once we were getting stops and making shots, we could see it in there faces, they were ready to break. That just told us: keep our foot on their necks.”

That was Montana guard Will Cherry, who led all scorers with 18 points.

That was a message, from David to Goliath that it ain’t 2007 any more, and that Goliath can’t mail in a game like it did last night.

For the UCLA basketball team to get to where it was – heck, not even all the way there, because I think just relatively consistent Sweet 16 runs mixed in with a Final Four or title game every handful of years – I think the Bruins need to realize that while “those four letters” were absolutely terrifying a few years ago, they just aren’t anymore.