LOS ANGELES >> Not to put any more pressure on UCLA’s basketball team or anything, but the Bruins suddenly have a lot to live up to … in USC’s football team.

Lonzo Ball only has to match Sam Darnold, his fellow quarterback whose Rose Bowl performance reads like a story miraculous enough for the Bible.

TJ Leaf only has to be as clutch as Leon McQuay III, whose last-minute interception against Penn State couldn’t have been better timed had he had the assistance of the two Leon McQuays who came before him.

Bryce Alford only has to be as accurate from beyond the arc as Matt Boermeester, whose long-range buzzer-beater Monday was worth three points and so much more.

It is now squarely on the Bruins, a team today conveniently ranked No. 4 in the nation since this also is a bunch that looks every bit worthy of the Final Four.

The Trojans raised the bar to Goodyear blimp-type heights with their 52-49 victory over the Nittany Lions, one of the greatest triumphs ever for a program that began churning out wins in 1888.

As we shift our focus to college basketball in the new year, it becomes the Bruins’ assignment to make something equally magical happen, to produce another glorious postseason run at a place already so familiar with postseason glory.

UCLA opened the home part of its Pac-12 schedule on Thursday by beating Cal 81-71, winning for the 15th time in 16 games against a good opponent even though the Bruins “shut it down” in the second half.

That was Coach Steve Alford’s assessment after watching his team’s 24-point lead dwindle to only five in the final minute.

“We got lazy and careless offensively,” Alford said. “The ball stopped moving. And then we didn’t defend … We thought it was going to be easy … Those are valuable lessons to learn because you can’t do that in this league.”

So the Bruins quit playing for an extended stretch, shot miserably in the second half, were badly out rebounded and still won by double digits. Yeah, this team is that good.

Now, I know, USC’s basketball team also is busy chasing the confetti trail left by the school’s football team. The Trojans opened their Pac-12 home schedule on Thursday, too, against Stanford at Galen Center.

They did so with a 14-1 record and No. 25 national ranking, and don’t you just know that when the Trojans host the Bruins on Jan. 25 something seismic is bound to happen?

But, at this point, it is UCLA’s basketball team that appears better equipped to provide us with a Rose Bowl-like showing, to duplicate during March Madness what USC’s football team did in a January already gone wacko.

“If, 16 games in the season, we can learn valuable lessons when winning, that proves the character of those guys,” Alford said. “They didn’t break. They bent a little bit, but they didn’t break.”

The Bruins just have that look, which is to say they just have that player, Ball possessing the remarkable ability to dictate the direction of a game without even having to take a shot.

Sure, he’s only a freshman. But being only a freshman doesn’t mean what it used to mean, particularly given that Ball almost certainly will never play at UCLA as a sophomore.

He’ll likely be in the pros at this point next year, probably, if this NBA season has taught us anything, beating the Lakers.

Against Cal, Ball finished with 14 points, seven assists and one reminder, Alford imploring him afterward to lead by more than just example. The kid with all the physical tools was encouraged to use his mouth more.

“We’ve empowered him to do that,” Alford explained. “Sometimes, you have to continue to reiterate it … Mostly, what I told him was, ‘Hey, this is your team to lead.’ ”

Vocally or otherwise, Ball again did set the pace on Monday. But it was Leaf, his fellow freshman, who set the tone, set it with extreme and outrageous emphasis.

In the game’s eighth minute, the 6-foot-10 Leaf dunked with passion over Cal’s 7-foot starting center, putting the “Oh!” in Kingsley Okoroh, a junior from England who was made to look as mobile – and defenseless – as Big Ben.

The slam was so dramatic that it brought packed Pauley Pavilion to its feet, and I don’t mean just the fans inside the arena. The actual building, I swear, seemed to rise up.

To be fair, Okoroh, later in the first half, nearly inhaled a driving layup attempt by Aaron Holiday, volleying Holiday’s shot into the crowd.

That, however, isn’t the sort of thing they’re talking about when they say a player has been posterized, Leaf’s primal finish over Okoroh the stuff that is framed and displayed.

Or, to be more accurate these days, viewed a million times or so on YouTube.

So the Bruins won an entire game against Cal by playing a little more than half of it.

That can be only an encouraging sign for a team pursuing Pac-12 prominence and beyond.

They certainly have the quarterback needed to win, and the Bruins might have everything else, too, everything necessary to make their own confetti fly.