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Andy Enfield has USC on the rise while Steve Alford has silenced doubters at UCLA, reinvigorating college basketball in Los Angeles and making the Trojans-Bruins rivalry relevant again.

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The O’Bannon name is synonymous with UCLA basketball. Ed and Charles were standouts when the Bruins won their last national championship 22 years ago to complete one of the greatest seasons in the program’s rich history.

Charles O’Bannon Jr. grew up listening to his father and uncle tell their stories about UCLA, memories created shortly before he was born in 1999. Junior has set out to create his own legacy, though, and is one of the nation’s top recruits in the 2017 class.

And he’s going to USC. You know, that other Los Angeles school.

Andy Enfield had designs on stealing the spotlight from the Bruins when he accepted the Trojans’ job prior to the 2013-14 season. Now he’s gotten to the point where he’s stealing top-tier recruits, unconcerned whether they’re sons or nephews of former UCLA greats.

It’s yet another sign that the head coach’s rebuilding project is on the upswing as he tries to prove then-athletic director Pat Haden’s statement true when he hired Enfield: “USC basketball should be relevant.”

Enfield took the Trojans to the NCAA Tournament last season and has them sitting at 17-4 this year – their best 21-game start since 1991-92 – despite a recent slump. He hadn’t beaten UCLA in his first five tries, then swept three meetings with the crosstown rival last year, two in the regular season and one in the Pac-12 Tournament.

That’s helped make the USC-UCLA basketball rivalry relevant again, and has more people than usual looking forward to Wednesday night’s meeting at at the Galen Center. The Bruins’ side of it is thankful Steve Alford brought in the players necessary to recover from an unacceptable season by UCLA standards.

Alford recognized that fans were calling for his job – sometimes in very creative ways – as the Bruins stumbled to a 15-17 mark last season following back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances in Alford’s first two years in Westwood. But he ignored the noise, knowing that incoming recruits Lonzo Ball and T.J. Leaf made up one of the nation’s top recruiting classes and would team perfectly with his son, Bryce, and fellow veteran Isaac Hamilton.

And they’ve all delivered. Bryce Alford is the Bruins’ leading scorer at 17.2 points per game, Leaf is the only freshman in the country averaging at least 16 points and eight rebounds, Hamilton had a 33-point game last week and Ball is a candidate for national player of the year honors while ranking among the country’s leaders in assists.

Those efforts are the main reasons why UCLA is 19-2 with a No. 7 ranking in the AP Top 25 despite Saturday’s 96-85 home loss to Arizona that snapped its six-game winning streak. The Bruins are again national contenders, with the Final Four being a realistic goal, but Alford hopes the Wildcats humbled them a bit.

“Points have come so easy and the flow of the offense has come so easy. We played Thursday night and we scored 21 points in the first three minutes into the game,” Alford said.  “They need (a loss like) this.”

Enfield suffered through plenty of losses – 42, to be exact – in his first two years with the Trojans. But now that his plan is starting to take shape, the expectations are beginning to rise. The Final Four mindset that resides on the other side of town? That’s what Enfield envisions for his program.

The Trojans’ current 4-4 mark in Pac-12 play following a 13-0 start shows they still have plenty of room for growth, though. Jordan McLaughlin and Elijah Stewart both are averaging 14.1 points per game to help make up for the loss of 6-foot-10 sophomore Bennie Boatwright, who is close to returning after suffering a knee injury two months ago.

“Young players are inconsistent, but we play hard,” Enfield said after USC’s 82-79 win over Arizona State on Sunday. “We think we have a special group here.”

Now there’s something that hasn’t been said in quite awhile at USC. And that’s why Wednesday’s matchup with UCLA carries more weight than it has in recent years.

“We’re looking forward to a sold-out crowd,” Enfield said. “We know how good they are.”

He also knows the Trojans are closing the gap.

MORE: Dennis Smith Jr.’s Special Night Boosts NC State’s NCAA Tournament Hopes