In the Pac-10, you can’t call this an upset

The scoreboard read USC 72, UCLA 63. Now there’s an outcome you didn’t expect to be reading over your Sunday morning breakfast.

Yes, we are talking about basketball.

Yes, this has significance.

This is how it is going to be this season in the Pacific 10 Conference.

We might as well have Michael Buffer take the microphone before every game.

Let’s get ready to rumble.

UCLA came into the game at Pauley Pavilion ranked fourth in the country, with a 16-1 record that said volumes, such as: This team is real good.

USC came in ranked nowhere, at 10-6 and with only one win in four conference games. Still, in this season’s Pac-10, among those who know, that didn’t say volumes about the Trojans. Their performance Saturday did that: They are real good too.

So if you are a college basketball fan living in one of those states within an hour or so of the Pacific Ocean, it is time to hitch up your belt, get your game face on, start to focus. (Maybe even practice your cliches.)

Asked if this was a statement game for his Trojans, Coach Tim Floyd said, “This is a statement game for the Pac-10 Conference.”

Floyd said that any one of nine teams in the Pac-10 can win as many as two games in the NCAA tournament this year. (Floyd didn’t say it, but the only dog is Oregon State.)

Ben Howland, UCLA’s coach, agreed on league strength.

“Anybody can beat anybody on any night,” he said. “We have five of our next seven on the road.”

In the months ahead, the fans will be paying attention to the national rankings. Floyd and Howland will be doing less of that. They’ll be trying to survive all their local and regional feuds.

From now until March, it will be a horn of plenty for fans, a mandatory time to follow the bouncing ball up and down the West Coast.

Stock the pantry with popcorn. Buy that big, flat-screen TV. Get the old easy chair reupholstered.

Check the family datebook for Thursday nights and Saturdays. No cocktail parties or museum trips this winter. If Uncle Fred and the kids were planning to visit from Keokuk, just say no.

Make sure you have e-mail addresses for all your East Coast friends. You know them, the ones who never watch Pac-10 basketball, who think the game was invented by some guy at Temple and think the only real quality hoops are played in places where the temperature never gets above 32 degrees in January and February.

Tell them this stuff is so good that, with Dick Vitale getting his voice back, he might even pry himself out of his ACC press seats some weekend and fly west.

Even if the rest of the league wasn’t as good as it is this season, the two Southern California teams alone make it worth watching.

UCLA has everything.

It has a star freshman center, Kevin Love, who can shoot and rebound and throw outlet passes like Dan Marino threw the buttonhook. Saturday, Love had 18 points, 12 rebounds and lots of bruises, both given and received.

It has the kind of savvy shooter every big-time college team needs. Josh Shipp, devoid of conscience with the ball in his hands and the basket anywhere visible, had 21 points, 15 of them on three-point shots.

It has a couple of active guards in Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook who can do everything: shoot, dribble, lead, defend, rebound, sweep the floors afterward.

It also has a veteran coach in Howland, who dissects the game, teaches it with intensity, has convinced 20-year-olds that playing defense is actually fun, and has taken two Bruins teams to the Final Four.

All this, and the Bruins lost by nine points.

USC may not have everything, but the gaps are hard to find. At least they were Saturday.

The Trojans have a star freshman, O.J. Mayo, who can shoot and defend, had 16 points against UCLA -- 14 in the second half -- and four assists. Mayo’s only mistake so far is his choice of jersey No. 32.

They also have a tough and heady point guard in sophomore Daniel Hackett, a 6-foot-9 mobile center in sophomore Taj Gibson and a stunning freshman in 6-8 Davon Jefferson, who killed UCLA with 25 points and nine rebounds.

USC starts three sophomores and two freshmen and that has not been without travail for Floyd.

“These guys are so young,” Floyd said, “that for a while in practice, I’d go an hour and 15 minutes and they thought it was time for recess.”

Of course, the Trojans also have Floyd, like Howland a veteran, who also dissects the game, teaches with intensity and doesn’t ignore the defensive end. The difference, at this stage, is that Howland has taken teams deeper into the tournament, always the litmus test for college basketball fans.

So, even if you are a casual fan, this is the season to dial in. Consider TiVo for bad traffic nights. Get the pizza delivery kid on retainer.

The mighty Pac-10 won’t always be this mighty, especially in Southern California. Both Love and Mayo will be in the pros next season.

Which also will be interesting, because, after this season in the Pac-10, they may find that easier.

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Bill Dwyre can be reached at bill.dwyre@latimes.com. For previous Dwyre columns, go to latimes.com/dwyre.