The nation sees Pac-10 basketball...

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... and it wondered why on Thursday night. Back-to-back on assorted ESPN outlets, USC (losing 63-61 to Seton Hall) and UCLA (losing 55-52 to Michigan) became the first two nationally-ranked college men’s basketball teams to get upset this season.

You can bet these results will be held against the Pac-10 all season.

USC was playing in Puerto Rico, UCLA in Madison Square Garden and it appeared, between them, there were maybe 50 fans actively rooting for USC and UCLA and about 49 of those were at Madison Square Garden. And the horizontally-striped, washed-out, kind-of-cardinal-and-gold shirts the USC staff wore? Also not ready for prime time.

So the two matchups that were supposed to make Friday’s TV viewing especially pleasurable both locally and nationally -- USC versus Memphis and UCLA versus Duke -- have become USC against Chattanooga and UCLA against Southern Illinois while Memphis now plays Seton Hall and Duke goes against Michigan. Nice way to show up, Trojans and Bruins.

-- Diane Pucin

Top photo: UCLA’s Jrue Holiday is defended by Michigan’s Kelvin Grady, left, and teammates DeShawn Sims, right, and Stu Douglass (1) during the second half of the game. Credit: Frank Franklin II / Associated Press

Inset: Seton Hall’s Mike Davis, right, blocks a shot by USC guard Dwight Lewis during the first half of the game in Puerto Rico. Credit: Andres Leighton / Associated Press