SCOOP DREAMS: _Bruins barely escape with a win, proving that even in the NCAA Tournament, the game is never really over_

TAMPA, Fla. “”mdash; Shame on you.

You did not read the warning label.

You know, the one that has come with every UCLA basketball game this season, the one right next to the big red skull and crossbones.

The game is never over. Never.

Why did you think the Bruins would make it any different for the NCAA Tournament, the big stage where nail-biters and armpit-drenchers are the rule, not the exception?

But you’re lucky; you get off light. Most importantly, you get to watch another game.

No. 7-seeded UCLA survived a furious comeback by No. 10-seeded Michigan State on Thursday in Tampa’s St. Pete Times Forum to get a 78-76 win, live another day and advance to the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Bruins held a whopping 23-point lead over the Spartans with under nine minutes left, and at that time, they were playing the best brand of basketball they’ve got.

Their defense filled gaps like a caulking gun. Their offense was aggressive with a snarl. Their chemistry was palpable.

Then they hit a wall, as this team has been wont to do. It’s like they wake up and realize they left their mojo in their other pair of shorts.

Luckily for them, the Spartans just barely ran (or walked) out of time, and that would make all the difference.

UCLA coach Ben Howland, who blamed his increasing hair loss on this profession last week, undoubtedly got a little bit closer to full-blown baldness after this latest win.

“This is not the first time that we’ve had a lead evaporate,” said Howland, whose life undoubtedly flashed before his eyes a half hour earlier when his team began missing free throws like they cost a grand each.

“We’ve played a lot of tight games,” he added. “Somehow we’ve found a way to win more than we’ve lost, and that’s been big for us.”

Never at a time bigger than this, obviously.

Regardless of what happens from this point on ““ a matchup with No. 2-seeded Florida still looms like a recurring nightmare ““ this win has made 2010-2011 a successful season for UCLA basketball.

Coming off the most embarrassing campaign of Howland’s tenure in Westwood, a trip to the NCAA Tournament was going to be meaningful, but it was not going to satisfy anyone’s thirst.

Advancing another step deeper into this Dance, especially when you consider the opponent, means progress. Despite its far-from-perfect ending, this win means hope. At the very least, it means an offseason without so many questions about how far the mighty have fallen.

This Michigan State team, though certainly not of Final Four quality as it had been in the two previous years, was still a team led by future Hall of Fame coach in Tom Izzo and still had more experience than all of the Bruins and their extended families combined.

“They are a tournament-tested, hard-nosed group,” Howland said of the Spartans, who make a first-game exit for the first time since a 2006 loss to George Mason. “It’s a huge win for us, and I’m sure it’s a confidence booster for our players. No question.”

Confidence is worth its weight in gold this time of year, especially when you enter that phase of the tournament where you will always be an underdog, as the Bruins will be Saturday when they face the Gators in their own backyard.

But with one win, one promising yet sweat-inducing win, UCLA has lived through the full gambit and come out on the other side.

It might take a while for them to process what all happened here tonight, as it surely will for the rest of us, but it happened nonetheless. All the moves and grooves of an NCAA Tournament victory have been implanted in the muscle memory of this team.

Sometimes just proving you can handle it is how you survive another game in this glorious event we call The Madness.