Less than a year ago, then-high school basketball sensation O.J. Mayo created the kinds of headlines that seemed to paint him as an another coddled hoop prodigy to whom too much was given too soon.

O.J. Mayo in altercation with ref!

O.J. Mayo suspended!

O.J. Mayo cited for possession of pot!

But hold the O.J. Mayo preconceived notions.

His first season of college basketball begins Saturday, with his Southern California Trojans, ranked 18th, hosting Mercer at USC's Galen Center.

These are the kinds of story lines O.J. Mayo has created since arriving at USC:

O.J. Mayo gets two B-pluses in summer school!

O.J. Mayo rides a bike to class!

O.J. Mayo has no posse!

Before rattling his first rim in a college game, O.J. Mayo has made a campus-load of fans with his humility and his friendliness and, well, by keeping his nose clean.

O.J. Mayo, a 6-5 freshman guard from Huntington, W.Va., considered by some analysts to be the top player in his class since he was in seventh grade, might have been expected to arrive at USC with an attitude and an entourage.

He came with neither.

"The impressions he's made on campus have been very refreshing," USC coach Tim Floyd says. "O.J. was kind of sheltered from the media since the seventh grade, and he has been painted with a broad brush to be something he is not. We've taken the shackles off, and I think he has handled himself very well with the media and with others. Those who have spent time with him have walked away very impressed."

O.J. Mayo, who turned 20 this week, says, "Yes, sir" and, "No, sir" and conducts the kind of thoughtful, interesting conversation that sets him apart from many college basketball freshmen.

"I think the more people O.J. meets, the better it is for him," says David Tuttle, USC's assistant sports information director.

O.J. Mayo chuckles when asked if people at USC thought he would come in with an attitude and strut around like a big shot.

"That's like saying Bill Gates must be arrogant because he's the richest man in the world," he says. "Or Oprah (Winfrey). I'd just like to meet someone and see how they are as a person, as opposed to what you hear.

"I'm just a ballplayer. Am I a competitive ballplayer? Yeah. Do I want to win? Do I really want to work harder than anyone? Yeah. But as a person, I'm just like the next man. I'm no better than the next man. I'm no better than the next student or the next person. I just have a God-given ability to play basketball, and I want to use that to the utmost to support my family and support myself.

"I'm no better than you," O.J. Mayo says. "I'm no better than the man on the corner with a 'Hungry' sign. I just have a talent, and I want to use it."

Lessons learned

O.J. Mayo can look back at his controversial senior year in high school and, while laughing at the silliness of some of the attention he received, he says he learned a lesson or two.

In January, tempers flared in a game between O.J. Mayo's team and Capital (Charleston, W.Va.). O.J. Mayo was ejected, then made slight contact with one of the referees, who crashed to the floor as if he had been hit with a ton of bricks.

The headlines made it seem like O.J. Mayo had attacked the ref. Video of the odd altercation emerged on YouTube, however, so viewers could decide just how villainous O.J. Mayo's actions were.

"I'm happy for technology," O.J. Mayo says. "People were able to see what happened. If not for that, it probably would have hurt my reputation more.

"Still, I might have been wrong in one sense, in walking up to the referee. I looked at it as a learning tool, like, 'Just do the right thing,' you know? If you get kicked out of the game, just walk away."

Not long after that controversy, O.J. Mayo and three other young men were cited for misdemeanor possession of marijuana after police in Huntington found the drug in a car in which O.J. Mayo was a passenger. The charge against O.J. Mayo was dropped three days later when one of the passengers said the marijuana was his. O.J. Mayo's record was cleared, but his reputation, again, was muddied.

He admits he has been surrounded at times by "negative people who just wanted to be around me for attention or whatever." Is that a problem now, in Los Angeles? Are people trying to get close, hoping for a payday when O.J. Mayo, probably as early as next year, heads to the NBA? (He says he won't decide about next season until the spring.)

"That's possible," he says. "But it's more like they just want to help you out. At the end of the day, you're like, 'Well, what's your angle? Why out of the blue do you just want to help me out?'

"You just learn, I think. I don't let anyone get in between me and my schoolwork and my basketball and my team and my family."

Longtime mentor

O.J. Mayo is the oldest of seven children of Alisha Mayo, a nursing aide. His dad, Kenny Ziegler, was rarely around and has been in and out of prison.

From the seventh grade on, O.J. Mayo has had a close relationship with Rodney Guillory, an events promoter in Los Angeles who helped guide him to USC. They met at the ABCD summer basketball camp in Teaneck, N.J. "He's a mentor," O.J. Mayo says. "He's an outlet for me to talk about life situations, basketball questions."

Should USC, in hot water over Heisman Trophy-winner Reggie Bush's alleged association with would-be marketing representatives, be concerned about the Guillory-O.J. Mayo relationship?

"If Rodney's his adviser, he's given him great advice," Floyd says. "I've seen nothing but positive from O.J."

That includes, of course, what O.J. Mayo has done on the court. With the loss to graduation of guard Lodrick Stewart and the early departures to the NBA of junior swingman Nick Young and junior guard Gabe Pruitt, the Trojans must replace about 44 points a game from a team that made a surprising run to the Sweet 16 last year.

O.J. Mayo had a winning effort of 41 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in the West Virginia state championship game last season, and he scored 34points in USC's Oct. 28 intrasquad scrimmage.

"I have no idea how many points he'll score," Floyd says. "All he seems interested in doing is winning. He's pointed out to me that Michael Jordan averaged only 14 points at North Carolina. But I know this: If he wants to score more than that, he's capable."