Surprising USC Trojans Complete Sweep of Arizona Teams

Well, this was unexpected.

No, check that. This was unimaginable.

Even for first year Trojan coach Kevin O'Neill who said, "If you told me at the beginning of the year we would have an eight game winning streak, I would have told you that you were crazy."

Consider us all candidates for the loony bin.

USC won their eighth game in a row by beating the Arizona State Sun Devils 47-37 at the Galen center last night in a defensive slugfest.

This followed the Trojans 56-50 win over Arizona two nights earlier and now finds USC tied for first place in the PAC-10 standings.

Unexpected? No doubt.

The Trojans, picked to finish at or near the bottom of the PAC-10 in preseason voting, have forged an identity based on lockdown defense and just enough offense to win.

After losing 80 percent of their starting five, all but one of their recruits, and their head coach amidst a cloud of NCAA impropriety, USC should have been picked to finish last in the conference.

Except the only ones who matter, the players and their coaches, didn't buy in to the negativity.

Coming into the ASU game, they and the Sun Devils were tied for third place nationally for overall defense efficiency.

After last night, the Trojans separated themselves from ASU by holding the Sun Devils to a ridiculous 24 percent shooting percentage for the game.

USC wasn't much better, shooting 36 percent but it didn't matter.

When your opponent scores only 37 points for the entire game, you don't have to be an offensive juggernaut to win.

Which is good because the Trojans will never be mistaken for that.

But they sure as hell aren't a last place team either.

Now 10-4 and riding that aforementioned eight game winning streak, the Trojans head up north to play Stanford and Cal this week.

We should know more about USC after this two game roadie which will feature a tilt with Cal who routed rival Stanford 92-66.

If the Trojans can find some semblance of offense and continue their suffocating defense, the Trojans just might pull off a victory at Maples pavilion against the Bears, but it won't be easy.

Yet, for USC, nothing this season has come easy but they still persevere.

Still, a sweep over the the two northern California teams will a tough sell.

Unimaginable? Maybe.

Just don't tell Kevin O'Neill and his players that.