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Trevor Ariza looks for an opening in Saturday’s 75-60 loss to Notre Dame.

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More schools are recruiting internationally, while UCLA is generally staying inside of the United

UCLA played its standard style of ball – like it didn’t care – and the resulting loss was no less surprising.

The Bruins didn’t really put up much of a whimper during a dreary 75-60 defeat to Notre Dame.

Only after the Saturday spanking did one actually do so.

“It’s shocking to be at UCLA and losing,” said guard Jon Crispin, who got the start on Senior Day. “It’s UCLA. How do you lose?”

“I don’t understand that. I don’t understand how we don’t come out and expect to be up by 30.”

UCLA never led in its finale at Pauley Pavilion, getting down by 20 in the first half and failing to cut the lead to single-digits in the second half.

Good news came Saturday, in that losses by Washington State and Oregon State, fighting it out for eighth place in the Pac-10, all but assure UCLA of a spot to play in the conference tournament.

But the Bruins (11-14) can now count on a second straight losing season for the first time since 1941-1942 and going without a bid to play in even the NIT.

UCLA was pounded all the way around against Notre Dame (14-11), both on the inside and outside.

Fighting Irish center Tom Timmermans scored a career-high 20 points and tied his career high of eight rebounds. The 6-foot-11-inch senior had been averaging just 5.5 points per game this season.

He dominated UCLA senior T.J. Cummings so much on the low post that Cummings, a senior, did not start the second half, nor did he even get taken out of the game to the obligatory standing ovation.

“We made him look like an all-league player,” Howland said.

“T.J. was not doing a good job defensively.”

Sophomore centers Ryan Hollins and Michael Fey didn’t do much to get into Howland’s good graces either, combining for zero defensive rebounds.

On the perimeter, Notre Dame hit nine 3-pointers in the first half and shot 12-for-26 overall from beyond the arc.

Guards Chris Thomas and Chris Quinn scored 21 and 20 points, respectively, for the Fighting Irish, and combined for nine 3-pointers.

“Our defense was really lagging,” Howland said. “We did a poor job defending the dribble. Every time we got beat, they were hitting threes.”

Ever so quietly, UCLA had four double-digit scorers on the afternoon in Hollins (13), Cummings (10), guard Dijon Thompson (10) and forward Trevor Ariza (10), who had his second career double-double with a game-high 10 rebounds.

“I thought they would come after us on Senior Day, but maybe they used all the energy they had (against USC),” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. “A loss like that takes the wind out of you.”

Said Crispin, “A lot of our problem is that when guys get down, they stay down. We’re not one of those teams that battles and battles. We really are sporadic with our intensity level.

“It has nothing to do with coaching. It’s up to us to lace up the shoes and get bloody.”

Howland, looking haggard after his last home game in his first season at UCLA, certainly won’t stop working hard.

“I’m definitely not quitting or giving up on the season,” Howland said.

Whether his players follow suit remains to be seen.