USC, READY AND WILLING, LEAVES QUITE AN IMPRESSION TROJANS MAKE A MEANINGFUL STATEMENT.

Byline: Karen Crouse

USC coach Henry Bibby downplaying the magnitude of his basketball team's game against UCLA on Wednesday was disingenuous. It'd be like his former Knicks teammate Bill Bradley minimizing the importance of the presidential primary in New Hampshire.

Sure, the games contested in March matter more than a city grudge match that takes place before President's weekend. But first things first. If you want to rule the conference, it's highly advisable to hold sway in your own city.

UCLA had gerrymandered L.A. The time was at hand for the Trojans to grow their constituency, mobilize local recruits and generate a little buzz beyond their backyard.

Enough posturing and promises, already. The Trojans' grass-roots campaign needed to take seed at the Sports Arena in front of a plainly partisan crowd.

Bibby's mandate as campaign manager, er, coach was to make his team believe it was the alpha male. He went about it in his own brusque way -- not by spouting bromides or courting reporters but by staying well outside the spotlight, the better to focus on infusing his players with confidence in one another and themselves.

The highest compliment that can be paid Bibby is he had his team ready. The Trojans came out higher than a helium balloon and took their collective game to another level. They played as though the rest of their season was resting on the result.

The way they hustled and hammered away at the Bruins, you would have thought the polls were closing at the stroke of midnight and this was their final chance to make a winning first impression.

UCLA, meantime, looked unprepared from before the opening tip. The Bruins arrived 28 minutes before the game's scheduled start after getting stuck in traffic for the soccer friendly between Mexico and Guadalajara taking place next door at the Coliseum.

The interminable 10-mile drive from the Westwood campus must have sapped the Bruins of their concentration. They shuffled through the game like it was a fast-food stopover on the way to the airport and a more prestigious national date with North Carolina on Saturday in Chapel Hill.

But enough about the looosing team, to borrow from a UCLA student section chant.

USC's 91-79 victory was big, as rousing a stump speech for the rest of the country's ears as the one Auburn had delivered the night before when it beat Kentucky for the first time in 15 meetings.

The Tigers had gone a decade between wins over the Wildcats. The Trojans' losing streak to UCLA was a mere 10 games but stretched to cover Bibby's tenure like an air-tight tarpaulin.

The Trojans were loath to admit it beforehand, but they were suffocating under the weight of all those losses. Going into Wednesday's game, they had

every reason to feel like the actors in the ABC sitcom "Sports Night"; they had put forth some substantive performances but few people seemed to be taking much notice.

That the Trojans (10-5; 3-0) had started the day deadlocked with Arizona for the Pacific-10 lead wouldn't have meant a thing if they didn't ring in a new day there, at the Bruins' expense.

It wasn't going to be as easy as it seemed. The Bruins (9-4; 1-2) may have staggered out of the gate this season but they have that staggering history. It works for them like a stiff wind at their backs.

The first time USC center Brian Scalabrine played the Bruins, last year, he looked at their jerseys and saw those 11 championship banners. "I was in awe," he recalled before the game. "I was like, wow, this is UCLA."

And the second time around?

"I'm over that," Scalabrine said. "They definitely have All-Americans. But I'm from America, too."

Touche. Scalabrine parried with the Bruins' vaunted frontcourt of Jerome Moiso and Dan Gadzuric all night. He crashed the defensive boards so hard, it's a wonder UCLA got any second shots at all.

The Bruins got only two offensive rebounds in the first half. The Trojans, led by Jeff Trepagnier's seven rebounds and Scalabrine's five defensive boards, outrebounded UCLA 28-10 on their way to a 13-point lead at intermission.

That's just extra effort. Of course, it helps to have Trepagnier, the human pogo stick, on your side. Bibby marvels at the junior guard's boundless energy reserves and his first bounce (step is too bland a term) to the basket.

"He never gets tired," Bibby said of Trepagnier, who contributed 26 points, 10 rebounds and three steals in 39 minutes. "He could play 50 minutes and play another game after that."

Given their druthers, all the Trojans would gladly return to the Sports Arena today and take on Arizona State instead of waiting a week to bring down the House (Eddie, that is). When you're for real, you don't want to sit around cooling your heels.