COLLEGES DECLINE TO TAKE AD-VANTAGE.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

If I'd been the NCAA, before this hoops season began I'd have taken out a big newspaper ad: ``Hey, NBA, we've got your basketball right here!''

If I'd been UCLA, before this hoops season began I'd have taken out a big newspaper ad: ``If you really love this game, come watch us play it!''

If I'd been USC, before this hoops season began I'd have taken out a big newspaper ad: ``We might win more basketball games than the Lakers this year!''

If I'd been Cal State Northridge, before this hoops season began I'd have taken out a big newspaper ad: ``We don't have Shaquille O'Neal. But we're in action and he isn't!''

If I had anything to do with college basketball, I'd milk this NBA nonsense for all it's worth, not so politely inviting NBA fans to get their fix from me.

Shows you what I know.

The people who actually run college-basketball marketing have taken a decidedly cooler approach to cashing in on the NBA's absence. And they might be onto something.

The numbers are small so far, and the reasons might go beyond the NBA situation, but interest in college basketball is on the rise this season, according to the biggest national measuring stick:

The ratings for college basketball telecasts are up a whopping 12 percent on ESPN and a megawhopping 32 percent on ESPN2 compared to last year, a spokesman for the cable networks said Friday.

Last year at this time, college basketball ratings were down, so it's reasonable to assume the NBA lockout is the difference. Also, NHL ratings are about the same this year as last, so it's reasonable to assume college basketball is the chief beneficiary of the NBA's problems.

``There's a lot of crossover on the fan base,'' ESPN's Dean Diltz said of the NBA and colleges. ``Also, we've tried to capitalize on it with increased marketing of our basketball.''

In other words, more commercials. But nice commercials - cartoons, with the slogan, ``Happy Action, Fun Time.''

Maybe you don't have to beat basketball fans over the head with anti-NBA slogans. We've made up our own minds:

We're tired of waiting for the rich players and richer owners to come back to us. We're going on with our lives and going to see the college guys, on TV or in the flesh.

The NCAA itself hasn't indulged in any NBA-baiting. And if any universities around the country have put out blatant anti-NBA ads, they've been ``pretty subtle,'' an NCAA spokesman said.

As for the NCAA's local members, their approach has been, well, restrained.

Not long ago, in a brainstorming session in the USC athletic-marketing department, somebody suggested a padlocks giveaway at the Sports Arena; it's a lockout, get it? Somebody in a position of authority thought better of that, though.

Across town, one idea for a season-opening ad went something like, ``UCLA basketball - we're not going on strike.''

But, said UCLA athletics marketing director Scott Mitchell, ``We decided not to go that direction, and push our positives rather than getting in the NBA's face.

``There is a greed factor and a selfishness factor (in the NBA) that you don't see in college sports,'' Mitchell said. ``But I think UCLA, in its current position, is better off pushing our team and the benefits of college basketball (than going negative).''

As for Northridge, it never considered going after the NBA crowd.

``We don't feel like we compete with the schools or the pro teams over the hill,'' said Brooke Michelle, who's in charge of athletics marketing for the Matadors. ``We target the (San Fernando) Valley. Our ticket prices are so low, we're competing more with the movies.''

Northridge basketball attendance at the 2,000-seat Matador Gym is up slightly in the season's first month, but that could be attributed to an improved home team.

USC - which could fit most of its crowds in a 2,000-seat gym - has seen no increase, although marketing director Mark Ryan said the NBA void has resulted in higher ad sales fMor Trojans radio broadcasts.

UCLA's numbers have been mixed. It's early.

We might discover, in the end, that the NBA and college crowds are substantially different - that, as USC coach Henry Bibby said, ``You have people who want to see young guys play, and you have people who want to Shaquille O'Neal play.'' In which case the lockout effect will be slight.

Or we might find out that the longer Shaq remains shackled, the more his undergraduate counterparts will win over the fans.

This much can be said with absolute assurance: Enjoy today's Wooden Classic at the Pond - Pepperdine vs. seventh-ranked Kansas, followed by 18th-ranked UCLA vs. 11th-ranked Oklahoma State. It will be the best basketball we'll see around here until 1999 and maybe longer.

Which might just be the kind of slogan college basketball needs this year. Direct but polite.

No need to get nasty about it and try to steal the NBA's fans.

Then again, said USC's Ryan, ``I wish I had a copy of the Lakers' mailing list.''