USC guard Ethan Anderson enters NCAA transfer portal

When USC wanted a stabilizing drive to save lots of its match life final week, it turned to Ethan Anderson, a veteran guard and former Fairfax Excessive star who’d spent three seasons guiding the Trojans as their flooring normal, on and off the court docket.

However lower than per week after USC got here up brief in that first-round NCAA match defeat, Anderson is on his approach out.

The junior level guard has entered the NCAA switch portal, announcing in a post on Twitter that he’s “so grateful to have performed in entrance of the town that molded me.”

“I wish to thank USC from the underside of my coronary heart for the wonderful experience being on 3 match groups and doing issues folks thought I may by no means do,” Anderson wrote. “USC will ceaselessly be in my coronary heart.”

Anderson’s sudden exit leaves USC with only a single level guard on its roster, Boogie Ellis, whose benching for Anderson within the loss to Miami (Fla.) sparked quick hypothesis that he, too, may go away USC.

No such resolution on Ellis’ future had been relayed to USC as of earlier this week, an individual near this system instructed The Occasions. However USC coach Andy Enfield and his employees are anticipated to fulfill with gamers within the coming days to debate their future.

For Anderson, three seasons at USC had been sufficient to solidify him as one of many program’s winningest gamers of all time. The Trojans gained 73 video games over that stretch, trailing solely Kansas and Baylor amongst Energy Six applications.

Anderson began that run as USC’s major level guard, establishing a fame as a hard-nosed defender and sensible distributor. However nagging accidents adopted him all through his tenure. Again points hampered him for a lot of his sophomore season, leaving switch Tahj Eaddy to take the reins of USC’s offense. He by no means fairly recovered his function as a junior, as Ellis took over as the first ballhandler this season.

Nonetheless, Anderson remained a key reserve over every of the final two seasons. He averaged 4.4 factors and a pair of.2 assists this season.

Even earlier than Anderson introduced his intent to switch, USC was anticipated to pursue not less than one level guard through the switch portal to complement Ellis. It’s additionally potential that Enfield may flip to freshman Kobe Johnson as a lead guard possibility after Johnson improved all through his first season.