ARENA FLOOR SITS AT ROCK BOTTOM.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

It's too depressing to look at it from the perspective of USC or UCLA, so consider this game from the standpoint of the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

If you're the Sports Arena - and you will be if you don't ease up on the French toast - you probably think you've seen and heard it all in your 45 years.

You've been the home of everything from pro basketball teams (Lakers, Clippers, Stars) to hockey teams (Kings) to arena football teams (Cobras) to Olympic sports to fights to track meets to ice shows to rock shows to circuses to a Democratic convention. You've heard cheers and boos from the Coliseum next door for pro football (Rams, Raiders, Express, Xtreme), for college football (USC, UCLA), for baseball (Dodgers), for soccer (Aztecs) and for a presidential nominee (John F. Kennedy).

But if you're the Sports Arena, you hadn't really seen it all until Wednesday night. I know I'll get an argument from Clippers fans, but this had to be the worst basketball game ever played at L.A.'s other House of Blues. At least, the Trojans' 86-85 victory over the Bruins in front of 10,147 spectators had to be the worst that this many people actually cared about.

The Trojans won, and what it meant is that they're back at .500 and coach Henry Bibby has his first season sweep of his alma mater, a feat that should come with an asterisk attached this year. The Bruins lost, and what it means is that they'll have to win their last nine regular-season games and reach the Pacific-10 tournament final to avoid their first nonwinning year since 1948. Seeing that the Bruins have lost nine regular-season games in a row, that would go down as history's most abrupt turnaround.

For anybody worried about whether USC or UCLA would qualify for the NCAA Tournament this season, Wednesday night changed the question around a little bit. Now the question is whether USC and UCLA - combined - could make the field.

I've always thought the much-maligned Sports Arena will go on forever, but after this it might not want to.

The biggest cheer of the game's first 10 minutes came when football coach Pete Carroll walked in and took a baseline seat. The biggest cheer of the game's second 10 minutes came when Carroll was shown on the arena's video screens.

Both times, the basketball teams played on while everybody else in the arena was looking at Carroll, which is just as well.

USC, which had just completed a great football recruiting season, obviously knew what would make its fans happy.

``Be sure to stay in your seats at halftime,'' the public-address announcer said, ``when head football coach Pete Carroll will join us with a special message!''

UCLA could have tried to distract its fans in similar fashion, but that would have required Karl Dorrell to appear in public.

Holding a microphone at mid-court, Carroll said thank you to his fans, made a little boast about next year's freshmen, and then reached down and rang the Victory Bell - the prize for the winner of the annual USC-UCLA football game.

I heard the clank and assumed it was Ray Young shooting again.

This was the first time since 1988 that USC and UCLA played each other when both teams were under .500. Bibby's Trojans began the night 8-9, 4-5 in Pacific-10 Conference games, Steve Lavin's Bruins 4-13, 2-7 in the conference. More impressive: The teams' combined winning percentage of .353 was the worst ever for a rivalry game at the Sports Arena.

Stat of the night: The winners had more turnovers (12) than baskets (11) in the first half.

It turned into an entertaining game for those who were patient.

The teams played hot potato with the win, tossing the lead back and forth for nine consecutive possessions in the last 4:10 before the Bruins took command at 85-82 on two Dijon Thompson free throws with 58.2 left.

USC's Derrick Craven made it 85-84 at 45 seconds. UCLA's T.J. Cummings missed a 3-pointer. USC's Errick Craven drove and was fouled at 4.4 seconds. Strangely, Lavin called his last timeout before the free throws. Stranger, after Craven made both shots, Bibby called a timeout.

Or maybe it wasn't a strange move by Bibby. He must have figured the more time Lavin had to instruct the Bruins, the better it would be for the Trojans.

Lavin assigned Jason Kapono, the team's leading scorer (17.2 points a game), to inbounds the ball at the backcourt baseline. It went to Jon Crispin, the team's eighth-leading scorer (2.5), and his running 3-point shot barely hit the rim.

Wide left, Pete Carroll would say.