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Well, basketball season unofficially starts tonight, and for hoards of UCLA sports fans, it seems like it couldn’t have come soon enough.

Many of us want to feel like winners again, and the football team hasn’t exactly been allowing us to feel that way.

That being the case, we’re more than ready to abandon “Dorrell’s Downers” in favor of “Howland’s Heroes.”

We’ve psychologically chalked up a 1-3 or 0-4 record for the football team the rest of the way, and now we’ve made our way down the basketball schedule and proclaimed that the Bruins will lose no more than five games all season.

That’s fewer losses in 35 games than the football team will have in 12, we think.

Then we pat ourselves on the back, assure ourselves that UCLA is a basketball school after all, and ride off into the sunset.

What we should be doing, however, is pointing that horse northward towards Berkeley, galloping up Interstate 5, and supporting the Bruins. The football Bruins. Because right now, they are the Bruins who need the most support.

I’m sure “Howland’s Heroes” will be okay without your full attention as a sports fan tonight against Cal Poly Pomona. And against Humboldt State. And BYU. To be honest, the basketball team has a great chance to win every game it plays in 2006. That’s an exciting prospect, but it’s not reason enough to quit on the football team.

I just can’t believe players when they say that it doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks, that the only thing that matters is the people in the locker room.

When you’re being booed by your own fans, that hurts. It has to.

When every outside source is questioning your coach and many are calling for his head, that has an effect. It has to.

When you look up and see a half-full Rose Bowl, that’s a slap in the face.

The Bruins might not say as much, but it’s the truth.

And the real truth is that the season isn’t over. There are at least four games left. There is still a chance for the football team to salvage things and do something special. And until those four games have been played, I think we should reserve judgment and show some form of support.

It’s certainly not the time to talk about the best candidate to replace Dorrell.

It’s not the time to talk about how many more games UCLA needs to lose to guarantee a coaching overhaul.

It’s never the time to boo your own team.

It is, however, the time to rally and get behind a team that needs a rally in a big way.

It’s funny to think about how much difference one year can make.

I went back in the Daily Bruin archives to check out what the basketball column written the day of last season’s first exhibition game said.

The headline: “UCLA in spotlight, basketball left in the dark.” In this case “UCLA” refers to the football team, which was a thrilling 8-0 at the time. Nobody really cared that basketball was getting started. It just sort of happened.

Now it’s happening again, and students are using it as a reason to put their football miseries to rest.

But it’s just too premature to quit on football season, to quit on Dorrell and the rest of the Bruins. As a fan, you have an obligation to root for your team to succeed. And there are four more games to do that.

Maybe UCLA will go 0-4. Maybe 4-0. When it’s over, conclusions can be drawn, recommendations made. Until then, chill yourself out, cheer the Bruins on, and let things sort themselves out.

And remember that when it’s all over, you’ll have Ben Howland and a perennial national championship contender on your hands. Then you can pat yourself on the back.

E-mail Regan at dregan@media.ucla.edu.