Less than two days after Arizona interim head coach Russ Pennell proclaimed that UCLA is "the cream of the crop of the Pac-10," the Wildcats' rival school came into Pauley Pavilion and stunned the ninth-ranked team in the nation with a comeback Saturday that could change the current conference landscape.

Maybe Pennell jinxed them. Or maybe the Bruins got caught sleeping.

That's what happens when you don't score for the final eight minutes of the second half, though.

"It's a game that could have gone either way," Arizona State coach Herb Sendek admitted afterward. "We were lucky, we know that."

Credit the No. 16 Sun Devils, who clamped down on Ben Howland's team and won the rebounding battle behind Jeff Pendergraph and Rihards Kuksiks.

"Coach was in our head saying if we were going to win, it was going to be on the defensive end," sophomore star James Harden said after finishing with 24 points despite four fouls. "Guys just locked in and came up with some big stops."

Including on the game's final possession in overtime, when the Bruins couldn't even manage to get a shot off with more than 20 seconds left.

"I told Darren that we wanted to go all the way to the basket," Howland said. "We didn't need to go for a 3-pointer, but we brought it up too slowly. Not getting a shot off, that's really bad."

Collison took responsibility for some of the mental mistakes he made against the Sun Devils, but UCLA (14-3 overall, 4-1 Pac-10) didn't exactly shoot the ball well, either.

After torching Arizona with 59.6 percent clip from the field, including a 7-for-17 mark from three, the Bruins made just seven of 25 attempts from long range Saturday - though their opponent was even worse at 3-for-17.

"Their zone is very tough and it's hard to score, but it's partly our fault," said senior Josh Shipp, who led UCLA with 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting. "We didn't execute. We just missed shots."

While they're still the favorite to win the conference for a fourth straight year, the Bruins, who were cruising along with a 10-game winning streak in hand, might have got what they needed: a wake-up call.

And a loss at home, their first of the season, could be just the thing that gets Howland's kids refocused.

"It's not so much about confidence but us getting used to each other," Collison told me after Thursday's 83-60 win over Arizona. "We got a lot of new guys on the team, and it's going to take awhile for us to play with one another. Right now is about the time where we finally gel and get our chemistry going."

We'll see just where that chemistry is when the Bruins head to Pullman Thursday to face Washington State before Saturday's matchup in Seattle against Washington and Jon Brockman, who is averaging a double-double at 15.8 points and 10.7 rebounds per game.