After 3 Months, 48 Hours Is Key : Pacific 10: There’s tournament pressure without a tournament as the conference race comes down to four games in Los Angeles.

Who needs a conference tournament to spice up the end of the regular season?

In the Pacific 10, one of only three Division I conferences that does not use a season-ending tournament to determine its automatic qualifier for the NCAA basketball tournament, the race has gone down to the wire, with a winner--or winners--to be determined tonight and/or Saturday in Los Angeles.

With a 14-2 conference record, eighth-ranked UCLA holds a one-game lead over 10th-ranked USC and second-ranked Arizona.

And if USC loses to Arizona State tonight at the Sports Arena, the Bruins could wrap up their first Pac-10 championship since 1987 by defeating Arizona later tonight at Pauley Pavilion, denying the Wildcats a fifth consecutive title.

But if that doesn’t happen, the race will be decided Saturday, when UCLA plays Arizona State at Pauley Pavilion and USC faces Arizona at the Sports Arena on the final day of the regular season.

At stake, in all probability, is a berth in the NCAA West Regional. The Pac-10 champion probably will open the tournament with a first-round game at Tempe, Ariz., or Boise, Ida., with the other invitees being sent to different regions.

“It’s one of those kinds of times that you long for, but yet when it comes, you’re nervous as hell,” USC Coach George Raveling said. “It’s kind of like the guy who’s looked forward to asking this girl to marry him, and when she says yes and it’s time for the wedding, he’s scared as hell.”

Also making USC and UCLA nervous is Arizona State, which is 6-1 in the second half of the conference race. The Sun Devils upset Arizona, 77-74, last month at Tempe and have moved up to fourth place in a late push to attract an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

If the Arizona schools sweep this weekend, Arizona will wind up alone in first place and Arizona State (18-11 overall) will find itself in the NCAA tournament for a second consecutiveseason.

Arizona opened the conference season three months ago by crushing USC, 107-68, at Tucson, but two days later, the Wildcats’ 71-game home winning streak was ended by UCLA, 89-87, on alast-second shot by Darrick Martin.

Five days later, the Wildcats lost again--this time to Washington, 62-60, at Seattle.

Since then, Arizona has won 14 of 15 games. And although they have been chasing UCLA in the Pac-10 standings since Jan. 11, the Wildcats have moved past the Bruins into No. 2 in the national polls.

“We’ve been playing well,” Arizona Coach Lute Olson said. “We’ve been staying pretty consistent defensively (and have) been rebounding much stronger than we were earlier. It’sbeen a pretty steady kind of improvement.”

Arizona State also has improved since the opening weekend of the conference season, when itlost to UCLA, 83-62, and to USC, 69-64.

“That’s certainly not the same team we opened the season with over there,” UCLA Coach Jim Harrick said of the Sun Devils, who limited Arizona to 36.1% shooting in their upset of the Wildcats.

Said Raveling: “They’re really starting to recognize each other’s assets and liabilities, and they’re playing accordingly. They’re getting the ball to the right people under the right circumstances, and they’re playing terrific defense.”

But if the task is formidable for UCLA and USC, it’s even more challenging for Arizona and Arizona State.

On the road, they will play two of the top 10 teams in college basketball, both motivated by a chance to win a conference championship, in a span of less than 48 hours.

“We know we’ve got our work cut out for us,” Arizona State Coach Bill Frieder said.