Is It Luck, or Merely Charlie’s Angels?

USC’s season of change is past the halfway point, and the Trojans already have 10 victories going into tonight’s matchup against No. 15 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion.

But the jury is still out on whether the Trojans can be considered for real a season after losing 14 consecutive games and finishing 7-21.

“People are probably thinking that we’re still not that good and that we’ve just been lucky,” said Coach Charlie Parker, whose team is 10-7 overall and 3-3 in the Pacific 10 Conference. “I don’t blame them. We have a lot to prove and a lot of season left.”

USC is 4-6 in its last 10 games, with UCLA tonight and a game at No. 3 Cincinnati on Sunday. That will end a 12-game stretch in which the Trojans will have played 11 games away from the Sports Arena and faced eight top 25 teams.

“We’re the true road warriors,” Parker said. “We’re a hard team to figure out. We’ve proven that we can play with either [UCLA or Cincinnati] but, we’ve also shown that we can be dominated too.”

USC had its best shooting game of the season Saturday at Arizona State after Stais Boseman and Cameron Murray switched positions, Boseman moving from shooting guard to point guard.

Boseman tied a career-high with 25 points, Murray had a season-high 20 and the Trojans shot 59.6% in an 80-67 victory.

“It was a move that I think not only helped [Boseman and Murray], but it also helped the whole team,” Parker said. “Stais is really an unselfish player, but when he is at two-guard, he doesn’t pass as often because he is looking to shoot.

“When [Boseman] is at point, he pushes the ball up court faster and that helps us get into our offense better. He’s a competitive player who is better with the ball in his hands. He makes us more aggressive offensively and our players felt comfortable with him there.”

USC has not had an experienced point guard since Duane Cooper in 1992. Burt Harris played well as a freshman in 1993, but struggled with injuries the next two seasons and has not played at all this season because of a knee injury.

Murray, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, began the season running the Trojans’ offense, but made only 41% of his shots and averaged only nine points before Saturday’s game against Arizona State. As a shooting guard, Murray made eight of 11 shots, including two of four three-point attempts.

Murray finished as the No. 3 scorer in state history while at Glendora High. Now, without having to control the offense, Murray is free to use his creativity and also get more shots for Brandon Martin, the team’s best outside shooter.

Martin, a 6-4 senior shooting 51.5%, also made eight of 11 shots against Arizona State.

“Our offense flowed a little better, but that wasn’t necessarily due to our change in point guard,” said Martin, averaging 15.2 points. “The key was that we came out and played hard.”

The Trojans have not always done that this season. At times, they have played like the same selfish, undisciplined team that finished at the bottom of the Pac-10 last season.

“It’s something that we can’t really explain,” said Ty Reuter, a senior guard. “If we could, we wouldn’t have played like we did [in blowout losses at Utah and Washington].

“It’s like we’re two different teams. We have to learn how to find a way to get quality play every night, and it’s not a thing where we need two or four people playing hard, we need to have all 12 play that way.”

In their 10 victories, which include road victories over then-nationally ranked teams Missouri and Washington State, the Trojans battled for loose balls, hustled on defense and passed to open teammates on offense. But in their seven losses, it has been a different story.

“A lot of people on this team are mature, but at times, it doesn’t show,” said junior Jaha Wilson, who leads the team with a 8.1 rebounding average. “We have to be focused all of the time. Sometimes, I think that we’re having too many fun and games, which is not allowing us to do what we’re supposed to do to win.”

Statistically, there isn’t a category that might serve as a measuring stick to determine the Trojans’ fate from one game to the next.

USC has been outrebounded in more than half of its 10 victories.

“I wish that there was one element or facet of the game that we could point to,” Parker said. “Things we do poorly, we do poorly when we win and we do poorly when we lose.”

USC is ninth in the Pac-10 in points allowed, and opponents have managed to drive on the Trojans all season.

“It’s kind of embarrassing,” said Boseman, considered one of the best defenders in the conference. “Defense is not that hard. We’ve been so focused in on offense, we’ve forgot to emphasize team defense. We have to all go out and do that part.”

In trying to prevent easy baskets, Avondre Jones already has set a school record with 57 blocked shots--breaking Rod Keller’s single-season record of 50 set in 1986-87--but has fouled out of half the 16 games he has played.

“We’re having a lot of breakdowns,” Jones said. “If we can start stopping penetration, then I wouldn’t get into so much foul trouble.”

So are the Trojans ready to make a run in the second half of the season, with seven of their final 11 games at the Sports Arena?

“Because we’ve played so many good opponents on the road, I think we’re better prepared,” Parker said. “But, the key for us is to play hard and aggressive. If we do that, we should be OK.”