Andy Enfield calls this USC team one of the most improved he's ever had

USC’s regular season and conference tournament run are up. The Trojans sit at 22-10 with their fate in the hands of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. Projections seem to suggest USC is safe, but they could’ve eliminated all doubt by beating Arizona State on Saturday to lock down another quality win while staying alive in the race for an auto-bid in the Pac-12 tourney.

Alas, the Trojans faltered and they’ll be done until NCAA Tournament (so they hope). Whether his team makes the Big Dance or not, head coach Andy Enfield is struck by how much this particular group has improved from the start of the season to now.

“It’s great for us to be 22-9, 14-6 in the league, outstanding regular season for us 9-1 at home in the league. I can’t say enough about the improvement this team has made,” Enfield said after the Arizona State game. “One of the most improved teams we’ve ever had here in 10 years. And the upperclassmen: we got Boogie (Ellis), the most improved player in the Pac-12. Freshman and sophomores really grew up this season and we’re always led by Boogie and Drew (Peterson), our true seniors.”

Peterson and Ellis needed some time to acclimate to being star players and carrying the load on offense compared to standing by as secondary options over the last few years. But once those two came into their own, USC took off and went on a heck of a run to close out conference play.

Though that run ended before they would have liked in the Pac-12 Tournament, Enfield tipped his cap to the Sun Devils, who he believes further proved themselves as a tournament calibre team on Thursday.

“Every game we play with Arizona state is always close and they usually end with some kind of shot in the last 30 seconds or even sometimes a buzzer. So Arizona State is an outstanding basketball team. I think they definitely deserve to make the NCAA Tournament and are playing really well. Beat Arizona on the road a few weeks ago and I think they’re as good as any team we’ve played this year. They’re very, very good.”

High praise from Andy Enfield for both his club and Arizona State. We’ll have to wait until Sunday to see whether the pair of Pac-12 clubs make it in the tourney field.