THE REAL FINALS ARE THIS WEEK AT UCLA.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

For the UCLA basketball team, it's Sweet 16 week. For the UCLA student body at large, it's finals week.

Which helps to explain why, if you went to Westwood on the morning after the Bruins' round-of-32 upset of Cincinnati, intending to soak up tournament-time campus atmosphere, you walked into a scene with about as much atmosphere as the moon.

Students trudged from dormitories to libraries bearing book bags and zombie stares. The closest thing to the sound of celebration around Pauley Pavilion was the backup beeps of tractors where the intramural field is torn up to make room for more underground parking. The only sign of team spirit was a ``Go Bruins'' banner on flimsy computer paper stretched over the student-union information booth.

If UCLA is playing the role of Cinderella this year, it is a Cinderella who heard the stroke of midnight while hunched over a history textbook.

Sophomore Adva Levi said she was riding an exercise bike in the Wooden Center gym and heard vague references to UCLA's double-overtime, 105-101 victory over top-seeded Cincinnati in Pittsburgh, which sent the Bruins on to face Missouri on Thursday night in San Jose.

``People were talking about it: 'Oh, did you hear? We won the game,' '' she said. ``It's nice to know we lose against really sucky teams but win against really good teams.''

That's nice to know?

``I guess we rise to the challenge,'' Levi said. Rah!

So it appears UCLA students are aware their team is alive in a tournament that it just might be able to win, if only because nobody else looks unbeatable.

You couldn't read all about it, though, because the Daily Bruin doesn't publish during finals week or the upcoming winter-spring quarter break.

Levi was working her shift in the student store's Bearwear department Monday morning. There wasn't a customer among the racks of Jason Kapono jerseys and blue-and-gold T-shirts.

Where merchandise was moving was in the class-supplies department. Exam booklets were flying off the shelves.

What a terrible time to schedule a basketball tournament. What a terrible time to schedule finals.

Even in the best of times, UCLA wouldn't react to the Cinderella exploits of its basketball team with quite the same small-town charm of, say, Gonzaga, Chattanooga or Coppin State. UCLA is the campus with its own Rubio's fish-taco counter, Sbarro pasta, Panda Express, Krispy Kreme and Wetzel's Pretzels. A couple of blocks away, Westwood is home to a Victoria's Secret, a Jerry's Famous Deli and glitzy movie premiers.

Most UCLA students live off-campus. Monday of finals week, they're as likely to be cracking the books at home in Granada Hills as at Powell Library.

Besides, who can get his mind around this notion of UCLA-as-Cinderella anyway? Whatever its recent ups and downs, the school has won 11 of the past 38 national titles. It was ranked No. 3 in the nation at the start of this season. Back then, nobody would have been surprised by a Sweet 16 appearance.

The UCLA sports information department points out similarities between these Bruins and the Larry Brown-coached team that went to the 1980 final before falling to Louisville: Same seeding (No. 8). Beat a No. 1 seed in second round (DePaul in 1980, Cincinnati in 2002). A Cummings played in each second-round game (Terry for DePaul in 1980, son T.J. for UCLA in 2002).

The point: Been there, done that.

Because the Western Regional will be in San Jose on Thursday and Saturday, it's possible for students with early-in-the-week finals to make the trip. First they've got to buy tickets, which isn't cheap or easy.

At 11 a.m., a half-dozen students were clustered around a bench outside the campus ticket office, filling out blue ticket applications that were to go into a drawing Monday night.

Two of the students planned to drive to San Jose immediately after their last exam Thursday.

``I don't think too many people are applying. It's $110 (a ticket), it's hard to get up there, it's finals week,'' said Ari Shapiro, a junior from Santa Barbara. ``I think everyone's pumped up about the game, but I think everyone's pumped up about watching it on TV.''

The group was frustrated that the number of tickets available to students appeared to be limited - to 450, they'd heard, out of UCLA's allotment of 1,250.

``Students don't get enough priority,'' said Justin Stone, a junior from Tarzana.

But Ken Weiner, associate athletic director for business operations, said he isn't sure what the students are complaining about. Their limit wouldn't be determined until Monday night, Weiner said, after he balances the demands of corporate interests, season-ticket holders and students.

``We've gone to these things for the last I don't know how many years, and students have never used their full allocation,'' Weiner said.

When UCLA faced Duke a year ago in far-away Philadelphia, 35 students made the trip, Weiner said.

Cinderella looks a little different in West Los Angeles.

It's finals week. It's the big city. And, if the Bruins lose Thursday, it's a football school.