Here’s a safe bet for Sunday’s rematch against UCLA: expect it to go down to the wire.

That isn’t because USC won in exactly that fashion on Jan. 30 in Pauley Pavilion, or because the Bruins – dripping with talent and motivation – face an athletic Trojans team gelling at the right time. Truth be told, it has nothing to do with UCLA at all. Nailbiters have just become the Trojans’ style, no matter the opponent.

Since Dec. 20 – a span of 16 games – USC has played in only three contests that ended with a double-digit gap in the teams’ final scores, with nine of those 16 decided by two possessions or fewer. There have been thrilling wins (a sweep of Stanford and a frenetic finish over Oregon State are the non-UCLA highlights) and crushing losses (lowlighted by an overtime road loss against Arizona State, and a last-minute heartbreak against Oregon), but since Pac-12 play began all of them have included something noticeably absent for much of non-conference play: resilience. After Bob Cantu replaced Kevin O’Neill as head coach, it’s also meant a winning record; the Trojans are 5-4 since the switch, with a 4-2 mark in games decided by five points or fewer.

"We just emphasized taking care of the basketball and playing poise,” Cantu says of his team’s new-found success in close games. “We try to simulate these situations in practice and they carry over. Once you get one or two [close wins], it's easier to get the next one.”

“Confidence is the biggest thing: I don't think guys are as tense as they were in those pressure situations,” says senior point guard Jio Fontan. “Coach Cantu is doing a good job of just letting talent play itself out sometimes and it works out for us well."

While Cantu has played an undeniable role in the team’s turnaround, an even bigger factor may be the players themselves. The Trojans are well-documented hodgepodge of transfer players, with nine current roster members spent time either at a junior college or a different four-year school before coming to USC. Bringing in so many transfers gave USC a roster full of experienced talent, but it came at a cost: they didn’t have experience playing with together.

Fontan believes that incubation period led to more than a few growing pains on the court.

“It's not only the timing of getting to know each other; it's knowing each other's roles,” said the former Fordham point guard. “When we came in, all of us transfers were saying out loud, 'we're willing to give this up to better help the team do this or that.' I don't think guys changed their minds as far as what they were willing to give up, it just became a matter of 'How do I do that and still be effective?'

“At this point in the season, we're learning that guys are in their roles now and understand how they can help our team, and how they can hurt our team.”

Fontan believes the turning point came two weeks before the coaching change, in a 63-61 overtime win against Dayton, but he also credit’s Cantu’s fast-paced attack for “open[ing] up the floodgates a little more.”

“It’s gotten even better,” he grins.

Despite that, there’s plenty more work to be done. The Trojans have shown an alarming knack for squandering big leads, having blown a 15-point advantage four times in the last month, most recently in a 76-68 letdown against Cal last Sunday.

"Any game, home or away, people are going to make runs. The key to it is to be able to get stops down the stretch and in the last four minutes, be able to make your free throws,” Cantu says. “We've done a great job with the free throws, now we need to be able to get stops."

"[We] just need to make sure we don't lose focus on the defensive end," echoes Fontan. "Looking at the Cal game, we went up 15 - you've got to put them away there. We've put together some pretty good runs, it's just a matter of weathering the other team's storm and defensively being able to get three stops at a time, multiple times throughout the game.

“It’s definitely a work in progress.”

The biggest factor behind the Trojans’ collapse against the Bears was an inability to contain explosive swingman Allen Crabbe, who torched USC for 23 points to go with 10 rebounds and six steals. On Sunday, they’ll have their hands full with a similar player in UCLA’s Shabazz Muhammad, a projected top-10 pick in this year’s NBA Draft. Whether or not they can bottle up Muhammad, who scored 22 points in the teams’ first meeting, could go a long way in determining if the Trojans can sweep the Bruins for the first time since the 2009-2010 season.

With wing defense having been a season-long issue, Cantu knows his best bet will be to take a committee approach to guarding the talented freshman. "You give him some different looks; you put a smaller guard on him or a bigger guard on him, depending on what you have,” he says. “You try to put different guys on him. You gotta be able to have fresh bodies on different people because it's very difficult to have the same person guarding a guy like [Muhammad or] Allen Crabbe... for the entire game.”

If the second half of the season is any indication, USC will find a way. The Trojans have become well-versed in working until the very last minute.

Reach staff writer Mike Piellucci here. Follow him on Twitter here.