USC’s Boogie Ellis on returning for one more year: ‘I’ve just got to show that I can win’

The fire inside the athlete burns brightly, at least in the elite competitors who aren’t satisfied with modest levels of success. USC’s Boogie Ellis is consumed with winning at a higher level.

In a video produced by USC athletics, Ellis — who surprised a lot of people by coming back for one more season of college basketball — talked about the thought process behind his decision. Teammates and assistant coaches offered their views of a scorer who wants to create more Boogie nights for USC and delay his NBA plans for one more year.

It all started with the loss to Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament. Ellis struggled in a USC defeat. Both his performance and his team’s result stung.

“I didn’t want my college career to end like that,” Ellis said. That was the root of his decision to come back.

“I checked all the other boxes,” he continued. “Now, I’ve just got to show that I can win.”

Boogie Ellis has won a lot of games at USC, so when he talks about winning, he doesn’t mean winning 25 games and finishing third in the Pac-12. That’s not terrible, but it’s not the pinnacle of the sport.

USC has a Pac-12 title to win. It has a Pac-12 Tournament to win. It has a Final Four to reach. It has a national championship to pursue. Boogie said he wants to win the national title. He is not merely driven to improve; he is driven at a high level.

One assistant coach says in the video, “He is possessed. He truly loves basketball. He loves the process of being good.”

That’s a really insightful observation. It’s not just the reality of being good, but the process of becoming good — always getting better — which matters to Boogie Ellis.

If he is noticeably better this season than he was last season, USC is going to make a deep run in March.

That’s what Boogie came back for.

More 1977 Rose Bowl!

WATCH: Anthony Munoz, Charles White explain why they came to USC

Story originally appeared on Trojans Wire