Elijah Weaver is candid when he looks back on his freshman season at USC last year and assesses what was missing during a mostly quiet debut for the 4-star guard who was rated a top-60 overall prospect in his class.

"Definitely confidence," he said earlier this week. "I didn't believe in myself last year. I also didn't know a lot of the plays, so confidence and just thinking too much was my problem."

Both of those factors can be attributed at least in part to the left ankle injury he sustained that August that required surgery, kept him off the court during his first preseason with the Trojans and sort of set the tone for what would follow, as Weaver averaged just 5.1 points and 2.4 assists while mostly coming off the bench.

Even when the ankle was healthy and he got his opportunities, he felt too tentative.

"It was like a certain play, I was able to take my man and I just didn't because I didn't want to break the play and worry about having to substitute or anything. I was just thinking too much," he explained.

Flash forward to last Saturday. For the second time in three games, Weaver looked like that highly-coveted prospect again, blowing past defenders off the dribble and serving as a catalyst for the Trojans.

The sophomore guard matched his season high with 13 points in just 22 minutes while adding 4 assists in USC's 75-55 win at Oregon State. Two games earlier, he had been key to the Trojans' late flurry and comeback win against Stanford, scoring 13 points in 17 minutes that game.

In between those performances, he struggled against Oregon with 4 points and 5 turnovers, showing he's still finding himself, but when he's on he looks like a potential missing link for a team that is perpetually searching for a steady third option behind star freshman forward Onyeka Okongwu and reliable senior guard Jonah Mathews.

"I think the last few games he's been more aggressive offensively and played harder on defense, and we need the energy from him," Trojans coach Andy Enfield said. "He is our fastest player with the ball in his hands and also without the ball. He has speed and size and we want him to use that quickness and speed, and two of the last three games he's really helped us getting to the basket, making good passes and also defensively playing very good defense. So we're impressed with how much he's improved in the last couple weeks and we need him to keep going."

It's perhaps no coincidence that Weaver's recent emergence has coincided with his embracing a sixth-man role after being moved out of the starting lineup in favor of grad transfer guard Daniel Utomi five games ago.

"I do know he's playing better, he's playing harder, he's more aggressive and we like what we see," Enfield said of Weaver's response to that role change. "... We didn't just make that deicison off one game -- we made a decision based on a stretch of games for the best interest of our team, and for Elijah to maybe take a deep breath and see where he needed to improve, so I think it's been beneficial to our team and to Elijah."

Said Weaver: "I think we all have a role -- we just have to perfect it. I found my role just being an energy guy. Now I'm coming off the bench just trying to be that energy guy still, so I think I just had to really lock in and find out what I was good at and perfect it."

In USC's impressive comeback win against Stanford two weekends ago (after being down 21 early in the second half) Weaver hit the game-tying 3-pointer in the waning moments of regulation and then scored 8 points in overtime to push the Trojans to an 82-78 win.

And then last Saturday at Oregon State, USC had let a 22-point lead get whittled to 6 with 12 minutes left before Weaver helped provide the spark for an immediate and decisive response.

After Okongwu got things going, Weaver blew past a defender near the perimeter for an easy layup and then on the next possession he dished a perfect bounce pass to Okongwu for a momentous dunk. A Weaver steal then led to a layup and free throw by Ethan Anderson, and Weaver followed with 3-pointer to stretch the lead to 18.

"I think those two games just helped the confidence," Weaver said. "It's kind of just showed me that no matter how bad I'm playing, just with confidence and my teammates around me I can bounce back."

Weaver's shot is still developing -- he's shooting just 33.3 percent from long distance -- but his ability to pierce into the lane before a defender has time to get in front of him and also serve as a smooth distributor makes him a very intriguing player the rest of the way for USC (16-4, 5-2 Pac-12). But it's about harnessing those strong spurts into more consistency, and if this really is the start of a true breakout for Weaver -- which is the hope for the Trojans -- it is still the just the start.

Enfield was asked if he thought those aforementioned drives from the perimeter were something Weaver might not have been confident doing last season, and he countered that the hesitancy was there even earlier this season -- meaning the growth is happening in real time for the talented sophomore guard.

"Early this year there were spurts of that but it wasn't consistent," Enfield said. "We don't expect him to drive every time he touches it, but we want him to play basketball the right way and when he sees an opportunity take it because he's capable of doing it. I think he's being more confident in himself, his abilities, and also realizing he has some special gifts and we need him to use it."