UCLA’s Hot Time in Desert : College basketball: Big two-game trip to Arizona could be a giant step forward or possible huge step backward.

Everything else seems like a prelude.

With the prospect of the NCAA tournament gleaming in the not-too-distant future, all the nonconference games, the lineup changes and shooting slumps have led UCLA here, where the season really begins.

Tonight against No. 11 Arizona, then Saturday against No. 13 Arizona State, No. 4 UCLA is facing what Coach Jim Harrick is calling “the toughest road trip I’ve faced in my 30 years of coaching.”

Arizona, 12-3 and 2-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference, is coming off a Final Four appearance last year, and looks to have the depth and experience to be there again. Arizona State (12-3, 2-1) has its best, most dangerous team in years. And UCLA (9-1, 3-1), with its most talented team in a while, is searching for a path to postseason satisfaction.

For the Bruins, who have already struggled on the road against two Oregon teams that weren’t supposed to be able to match up with them, it’s a chance to beat back the demons of road disasters past and begin a surge toward the tournament.

It’s a chance to begin playing like a team that might make the Final Four.

For the deeply talented Arizona schools, the games are home-floor opportunities to significantly deflate UCLA’s confidence, hopes of winning the Pac-10 title and chance at earning a No. 1 or 2 seeding in the tournament.

A chance to knock UCLA totally out of kilter.

“I really think this is going to be the toughest road trip I’ve ever faced in my four years here,” Bruin center George Zidek said. “They’re both excellent teams. Both have tremendous players.

“And now that I think about it, I think it’s one of the most important road trips I’ve ever been on. Probably the most important. It’s always a big game between UCLA and Arizona, and now Arizona State has stepped it up.”

The Bruins under Harrick are 1-5 at Arizona, and for the first time in Harrick’s seven-year UCLA career, play in Arizona’s McKale Center to open the trip.

Over the last decade, UCLA has beaten Arizona at Tucson only twice, and those are the only seasons the Bruins have won the conference title--in 1991-92 under Harrick, when the Bruins went to the Sweet 16, and 1986-87, under Walt Hazzard.

Since the 1987-88 season, Arizona is 64-2 at home in Pac-10 games.

This year, Arizona has opened with three consecutive conference road games--a loss at Arizona State, then a resounding sweep of Stanford and California--and will play nine of its final 15 conference games at home.

“They’ve really jumped into the driver’s seat in the conference,” Harrick said. “That was a great, great sweep for them on the road, Going up there and getting a sweep changes a lot for them.”

If UCLA can pull off a victory, the Pac-10 race is open again. If the Bruins can’t, Arizona will be totally in control of the race for the NCAA West Regional’s probable top seeding.

Said Arizona Coach Lute Olson, “I think our UCLA game is vital. There’s no question if they were to get us here, that would give them a big step on anybody else and it would wipe out what we accomplished on the trip up to the Bay Area.”

The Wildcats have bombed UCLA at Tucson the last two seasons and, with the Bruins having played unevenly in their first Pac-10 trip--a split in Oregon--Arizona is poised to administer a hit.

“It’s a big game for us,” said Wildcat guard Damon Stoudamire, a candidate for national player of the year who scored 71 points in the two Bay Area games.

“We feel real confident going into these games, because the past couple of years we’ve really put it on UCLA. In the back of their minds, we know, they have to be thinking a little bit about what’s going to happen this time around.”

If the Bruins lose to Arizona, they will be looking to salvage a split against Arizona State, which has already defeated Arizona in Tempe, is loaded with good athletes and focuses on center Mario Bennett.

“I think back a few years ago, when (the Sun Devils) weren’t very good, teams could come in here and really concentrate on this game,” Olson said. “But anybody that comes in here just thinking about us now is going to walk away with a knot on their head up in Tempe. That’s a really good team.”

Whether UCLA wins or loses tonight, Harrick says he considers the two-game series a good test for postseason play.

“You’ve got to play two in the tournament, two tough games back to back,” Harrick said.

And if UCLA could somehow slip past Arizona and Arizona State, how big would a sweep be, Lute?

“It’d be big,” Olson said. “I don’t think anyone will (do that).”