Boogie Ellis reveals his expectations for this year's USC basketball team

USC guard Boogie Ellis has high expectations for the Trojans in the 2022-23 season. Coming off of a first round exit in the NCAA Tournament this year, Ellis is hoping for a much deeper run in this year’s version of March Madness.

Appearing on a recent episode of Trojans Live, Ellis noted the parity that he sees this season, with several top teams having already lost. For that reason, he believes the field is wide open and USC has just as good a chance as anybody to cut down the nets in April.

“Our expectations are high,” he said. “We want to get deep into March. Anything can happen in March. So just getting there and just winning games. Obviously, my goal is to win a national championship. To get to March Madness, that gives us a chance to do that. As you’ve seen this year, it’s wide open. Everybody’s been beating everybody. There hasn’t really been a team that’s on top. You’ve got guys losing to all different types of teams.

“I think it’s because of the transfer portal. You’re playing against other teams now that aren’t as bad as they were because they’re getting guys that played at big universities. It’s really changed college basketball. I just feel like it’s pretty open this year and we have a chance.”

Perhaps the most prominent example of Ellis’ point is North Carolina, which entered the season No. 1 in the AP poll but one one point lost four straight games and is currently unranked. However, teams such as Gonzaga, Baylor, Duke and Kentucky have already lost two or more games as well.

The Trojans is so far 7-3 this season and has gotten off to a 2-0 start in Pac-12 play. Boogie Ellis, who is in his second year with the team after transferring from Memphis last year, leads USC in scoring with 14.4 points per game.

USC has not been immune to losing to teams it shouldn’t this season, as the Trojans fell to Florida Gulf Coast in their season opener. However, with the way they’ve bounced back and their current three-game winning streak, there is hope that this year can still be a special one.

USC will hope to extend its winning streak to four when it takes on Long Beach State at 8 p.m. PT on Wednesday.