First-Team All-Pac-12 Guard Explains USC Trojans’ Basketball Culture

Majority of the NCAA world was in shock when they got the news that Boogie Ellis would be returning for his final year of eligibility as he was coming off of his best collegiate season that saw him average 17 points for a USC Trojans squad that went 22-11. He had the resume to declare for the NBA Draft but after some careful thought-processing, he decided it would be best for him to run it back at Galen Center one more time.

And there will be some heavy expectations heading into this new campaign seeing that Ellis will be teaming up with a number of top prospects and he simply did not choose to forego the NBA for another year if he wasn't hoping to win big time. Isaiah Collier and Bronny James will be able to take on a lot of the ball-handling load and Ellis will have plenty of scoring opportunities.

Ellis is 22-years-old and has been able to grow under USC's program after two decent seasons at Memphis. He has truly been able to find himself with the Trojans and he recently broke down the Trojans' culture as a whole.

"The guys are only going to follow you if you're the hardest worker," said Ellis. "You got to lead by example pretty much, you got to establish culture within the team. Once you got that culture, you start to win. I just want to continue to lead these young guys."

(Via USC Hoops)

It's going to be very interesting to see the dynamic between Collier and the rest of the Trojans this season and as long as everybody buys into this culture, the sky will be the limit for the Trojans.