NCAA tournament prospects for UCLA, USC continued

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A follow-up to my sneeze-and-you-missed-it, makeup-less, sure-to-be-Emmy-nominated Thursday night KTLA segment regarding the NCAA tournament prospects of UCLA and USC:

Bulletin: UCLA is still in the tournament and USC is still out.

In fact, the Trojans had better get on their high white horse or else all attention immediately turns to spring football practice.

UCLA’s closer-than expected victory at Stanford prevented a further slide for the Bruins down the NCAA seeding ladder, while USC’s overtime defeat at California dealt the Trojans a severe March Madness setback.

USC fell to 7-8 in the Pac-10 -- amazingly tied with Oregon State -- and now the Trojans’ NCAA prospects seem hinged to winning their last three conference games (Stanford and the Oregons) and making a deep run in the Pac-10 tournament.

Jerry Palm of CBS Sports, a noted bracketologist, had USC as one of his last four teams out of the tournament before the Trojans lost Thursday night at Cal.

Palm had UCLA slotted as a No. 7 in the East region playing No. 10 South Carolina in a first-round game in Kansas City.

Sports Illustrated’s mock bracket actually had USC in the field at the start of the week, as a No.12 playing No. 5 Utah in Kansas City. Again, that was before Thursday’s loss.

Yahoo! demoted USC to its ‘Long Shot for a Bid’ category but bumped UCLA to a No. 6. And, as of today, Joe Lundardi of ESPN.com has USC off his radar and UCLA in the West, seeded No. 5 and playing No.12 Penn State in Portland.

It’s going to be different for UCLA, that’s for sure, after advancing to three consecutive Final Fours as either a No 1. or a No.2.

In 2006 and 2007, UCLA got to the Final Four without leaving California. Last year, the Bruins made the cozy Anaheim-Phoenix connection en route to San Antonio.

If it can win out and capture the Pac-10 tournament, UCLA might be able to get as high as No. 3 this year. Any more slip-ups, though, and the Bruins could end up as a No. 8 clap.

-- Chris Dufresne

Photo: UCLA looks like a slam-dunk for the NCAA Tournament while USC is falling out of contention. Credit: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images.