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  Jeff Agase Agase would much rather see 3-2 turn into 25-5 than see 6-0 turn into 7-4. Use your study break to e-mail him at agase@ucla.edu.

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"UCLA will never be an elite program with Steve Lavin as head coach.”

“Can’t coach his way out of a wet paper bag.”

“Lavin’s got more excuses than a man going to jail.”

And that’s just what they’re saying on Internet message boards. The profanity-laden student section is worse.

WebSportsman.com says that deer season is right around the corner, but it seems Lavin season has come a month or two early this year.

First, however, let’s get this much out of the way. The Bruins are 5-2. The two losses looked absolutely awful. Steve Lavin’s Bruins gave some of the most uninspired efforts this side of last month’s USC football game. There is little reason to stick up for Steve Lavin.

Right now, you’re nodding your head, maybe even contorting your facial muscles into one of those sadistic John Gruden scowls. You hate Steve Lavin. You hate losing to Pepperdine, Ball State, Colorado State, Washington, Cal State North – heck, you hate that you can remember all those games.

But it’s Dec. 10. Steve Lavin isn’t going anywhere. There’s a chance this team isn’t either – but that’s not likely. It’s simply not the time to decide that Steve Lavin is done coaching at UCLA.

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a waste of valuable advertising space to make excuses for a guy who has had plenty of chances. I’m just as tired as you are of hearing, “Steve Lavin is one of only three coaches to take his team to the Sweet 16 four of the last five seasons,” or “Steve Lavin has the highest winning percentage among sixth-year coaches.”

But I’m not ready to give up on this guy six games into the season. Sure, they’ve looked disjointed in the wins, even worse in the losses. They let a guy with a Calista Flockhart build and the nickname “Colonel” Jimmy Miggins make like a Ginsu through their defense for 20 points.

It’s nothing new. Under Lavin, the Bruins have suffered annual Fall-Quarter meltdowns, only to come back strong in February to re-win the hearts of UCLA faithful.

The typical Lavin team is like a dog that can’t seem to control itself. You come home from a tough day, only to see a stinky loss to CSUN or a smelly upset from Pepperdine. The easy solution is to just get rid of the thing. Toss it out and you won’t have to deal with a house that smells like the outside of Hedrick Dining Hall.

But let it stick around, and after a rough day, you’ll come home to an emphatic welcome, maybe an upset win over Stanford at Maples Pavilion, perhaps a court-rushing victory over Arizona at Pauley.

This team has laid a couple of dookies so far. But don’t kick the head dog out just yet.

U.S. News and World Report seems to think we’re the 26th smartest college kids in the country, or something like that. Let’s show them we’re smarter – that we can look past a lackluster start and be rational.

That doesn’t mean we should give Lavin a “Get Out of Unemployment Free” card. Far from it. This year has the feel of an on-the-job interview, and it should. These are all guys Lavin recruited, running Lavin’s game plan, playing for Lavin’s job – with the ominous possibility of a new athletic director waiting in the wings next summer, ready to start anew.

Come March, we might all be calling for Lavin’s head, but December isn’t the time to roll out the guillotine. This team could do anything from slide to a low seed to win the Pac-10 tournament and lock up a No.1 seed.

The easy thing right now is to complain about how disorganized this team looks. That usually goes right back to coaching, which means it goes right back to Lavin. But it’s been the same story the last few years – a sloppy UCLA team drops a few games before New Year’s, pulls it all together and knocks off a couple of good Pac-10 teams.

Of course, that’s not going to be enough this year. Too many people are too tired of Sweet-16 losses.

But it’s not fair to Lavin – and definitely not fair to these players – to write the guy off one-fifth of the way into the season, when his biggest games are still ahead of him.

It’s more sensible to give Lavin the remainder of this year to show what he can do, free from employment distractions, and then make a very hard-nosed evaluation. If he doesn’t get the job done, a serious decision should be made. It’s fair to Lavin and fair to us restless fans.

So rather than a knee-jerk cry of “Can Lavin!” perhaps it’s more appropriate and rational to ask, “Can Lavin finally pull this thing together?”

Once we know the answer, we’ll have our solution. But that won’t come for another four months. Until then, let’s make like a certain coach’s hair and keep still.

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