The coach whose team handed UCLA its most humbling loss of the season marvels when he watches the Bruins now.

Cal State Fullerton’s Dedrique Taylor believes they look like a totally different team aside from the four letters across their chests.

No longer does UCLA appear so resistant to first-year coach Mick Cronin’s emphasis on discipline, effort and fundamentals. The Bruins now clearly understand they cannot win on talent alone.

No longer is UCLA so nonchalant scrambling to contest shots or so careless about missing box-outs or defensive rotations. The Bruins now display a newfound commitment to defense and rebounding.

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No longer do UCLA players’ heads drop and shoulders slump at the first hint of adversity. The Bruins now appear to have the confidence that they can fight back from any deficit.

“It’s so awesome to see the transformation that UCLA basketball has made under Coach Cronin,” Taylor said. “When they played us, they had bad body language, they weren’t executing on defense, they weren’t winning 50-50 balls and they weren’t making toughness plays. Now you expect them to do those things and they themselves expect to do those things. They understand that if they do, they’re going to win.”

UCLA’s stunning midseason revival makes the Bruins one of the toughest bubble teams for the NCAA tournament selection committee to assess. Committee members will have to figure out how to evaluate a team that floundered for much of the season but has performed like a top-20 team since mid-January.

Left for dead after failing to beat a single top-100 opponent during non-league play and suffering embarrassing home losses to Hofstra and Cal State Fullerton, UCLA reaffirmed its irrelevance by dropping three of its first four Pac-12 games. Only then did the Bruins roar back to life, winning 11 of their next 13 games, including sweeps of Colorado and Arizona and a home victory over previously surging Arizona State.

Tyger Campbell (10), David Singleton (34), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (4), Jalen Hill (24) and Chris Smith (5) of the UCLA Bruins listen as head coach Mick Cronin talks during a timeout on Feb. 29. (Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) More

That torrid stretch leaves UCLA (19-11, 12-5) with an unusual résumé entering Saturday’s regular season finale at USC (21-9, 10-7).

On one hand, UCLA is alone in first place in the Pac-12 and boasts eight Quadrant 1 or 2 victories since late January. On the other hand, the Bruins were so dreadful the first half of the season that they’re still only 75th in the NCAA’s NET rankings, below some teams that will struggle to make the NIT, let alone contend for an NCAA bid.

Most mock brackets currently project UCLA as one of the last teams in the field or one of the first left out. The committee is instructed not to weigh how a team finishes any heavier than how it starts, but Cronin is hopeful that UCLA will be rewarded for its marquee wins and late-season improvement.

“I always refer to Jay Bilas’ thing: Who have you played and who have you beat?” Cronin said. “We’re in first place in the Pac-12 and six or seven teams from our league are going to the NCAA tournament. What else is there to talk about?”

Whatever happens on Selection Sunday, UCLA should be encouraged that it is even in the conversation. It’s an early sign that Cronin may prove to be the right choice for the job even if he wasn’t athletic director Dan Guerrero’s top candidate — or even his second or third.

Not only did Cronin inherit a struggling program that lost its top three scorers from the previous year’s 16-loss team, he also had to help UCLA’s returning talent transition between two unusually dissimilar regimes. Ex-UCLA coach Steve Alford prioritized skill and scoring but treated defense as a nuisance. Cronin’s best Cincinnati teams seldom lit up the scoreboard, but tough, physical defense was always a hallmark.

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