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He has tested his coach, eaten his words after popping off about a rival and glowered at game officials who dared call him for a foul.

No surprise there.

He has also sparked some of his team’s most impressive victories and has had far more than his share of jaw-slacking, did-you-see-that highlight moments.

No surprise there, either.

USC has pretty much gotten what it expected from freshman Davon Jefferson, whose prodigious basketball skills are, at times, overshadowed only by his erratic behavior. As the Trojans prepare for a late-season push that they hope involves a deep run in the NCAA tournament, their fate might hinge on which Jefferson shows up over the next month.

“As long as he keeps his focus and does the simple things on the court, he’ll be fine,” sophomore guard Daniel Hackett said. “He’s had a great freshman season for us. You’ve got to remember, he’s a freshman.” A freshman who can be very, very good. The 6-foot-8 forward is second on the team with averages of 12.2 points and six rebounds, and USC’s resume includes victories over quality teams such as Southern Illinois, Oklahoma and UCLA in which Jefferson has scored 20 points or more.

When the Trojans upset No. 4-ranked UCLA, 72-63, on Jan. 19, Jefferson stole the show with nine rebounds and 25 points, including a ferocious dunk over center Kevin Love that became a YouTube favorite.

Then there’s the Jefferson who can be “indifferent,” “not tuned in” and “a bit of a jerk at times,” said Dinos Trigonis, a club coach who has known him for years.

Before the rematch with UCLA this month, Jefferson chastised the Bruins for not being physical only to all but disappear himself during the game, a 56-46 loss in which Jefferson scored only four points.

Already 21, Jefferson recently acknowledged that he still needed to go “a long, long, long, long way as far as maturing,” but he has managed to keep one influential ally: star Trojans guard O.J. Mayo.

Though the Trojans coaching staff was initially hesitant to add a potentially disruptive influence to the team, Mayo said he waited for Jefferson’s commitment before making his own.

“I really wanted to make sure that he got into school all right and he was going to be on the court with me playing, because he’s a competitor and a big-time talent and he’s the type of player you like to battle with on the court,” Mayo said in November.

It became clear from their first moments together, when Mayo continually fed Jefferson for dunks and layups during an exhibition victory over a Mexican professional team, that the duo was capable of propelling the Trojans to success.

It also quickly became evident, when Jefferson sat out losses to Mercer and Washington State because of disciplinary issues, that he was having trouble staying in good graces.

Again, no surprise there.

Mike Acheanpong, who was coach at Lynwood High when Jefferson played there, said his star player was suspended three times in high school -- twice for “attitude detrimental to the team” and once for his alleged role in instigating an altercation after a game against Compton Dominguez.

Jefferson, who struggled academically at Lynwood and failed to achieve a college-qualifying standardized test score, pinned his problems in part on a lack of guiding influences in his life. He has never been close to his father, a truck driver who makes only occasional contact, he said.

“It was just me and my mom, and once I was gone out of the house there was no one to sit back and tell me, ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that,’ because my homeboys were probably doing as much as I was doing,” Jefferson said. “There wasn’t any male guidance or anything like that.

“It’s like if you let a kid keep taking candy from a candy store, they’re going to keep on taking it and pretty soon all of their teeth are going to be gone.”

Acheanpong said those who tried to provide direction often met resistance. “I just wanted the best for him,” the former Lynwood coach said.

But Jefferson continued to stumble before straightening out.

After he failed to achieve the academic credentials necessary to enroll at Nevada Las Vegas, his first college choice, Jefferson left Lynwood and headed to prep school in Lenoir, N.C.

“I never had any problems with him on or off the court,” Patterson School Coach Chris Chaney said. “But, academically, he was a little behind when he came and didn’t do what he had to do to get where he needed to.”

Tiring of the frigid foothills of North Carolina and 17-hour rides to games with 18 passengers crammed into a van designed for 15, Jefferson returned home to Southern California in January 2006. Chaney said the parting was mutual since Jefferson wasn’t on track to meet his academic obligations.

Backed into a corner, Jefferson then embarked on online and community college courses through a Compton adult school to gain his college eligibility, showing impressive dedication for someone who had not previously taken schoolwork seriously.

“I just really didn’t have a choice,” Jefferson said. “It was do the work now or stay home and try to be a regular, average Joe for the rest of my life. So I just knew I had to just lock down and get it done.”

And he did, even carrying enough study habits over to where he says he achieved a respectable 2.75 grade-point average in his first semester at USC.

“I’ve definitely seen some growth maturity-wise,” Acheanpong said. “I always tell him, ‘Tough times don’t last, but tough people do,’ and that’s what he is.”

Which is not to say all of his old bad habits disappeared.

USC Coach Tim Floyd benched Jefferson without explanation for an important game against Washington State last month, saying only that he “didn’t make the cut.” Two sources said the punishment came after Floyd had tired of Jefferson’s attitude.

It wasn’t the first time.

In the one practice open to the media this season, an early November session also attended by USC boosters, Floyd held the ball and glared at Jefferson for about 10 seconds after the player made a move his coach didn’t like.

Floyd then held Jefferson out of the Trojans’ first three games of the season, saying the player hadn’t fully mastered team concepts and that he wouldn’t award “entitlement minutes.”

Publicly, everything is on the upswing. Jefferson called sitting out the Washington State game a turning point, just like his academic travails that eventually landed him at USC.

He said he listens more now, and it’s clear watching him play that he has developed a willingness to take charges and sustain a defensive stance, things he wasn’t doing earlier this season.

He even exchanged a tender moment with Floyd last month, hugging him earnestly in the waning moments of a road victory over Oregon.

“He’s been very good,” Floyd said recently. “Even when he didn’t score, he’s been good. He had games where he was good before that, but he’s been more steady.

“I wouldn’t use the words ‘grow up,’ but he’s been a consistent player in all regards.”

Jefferson’s steadiness on the court has elevated him to a late first-round selection in the NBA draft in the estimation of one league executive. A source close to Jefferson said he intended to declare for the draft after this season.

But if nothing else, his first year in college has taught him lessons about accountability and winning over those who aren’t always in his corner.

Said Jefferson: “I had to learn the hard way.”

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ben.bolch@latimes.com