USC Basketball: Trojans Boogie Ellis Named in Top 10 For Prestigious Award
Amidst a tough stretch for USC's basketball team, the Trojans got positive news with star guard Boogie Ellis being named one of the top 10 shooting guards in the country by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
The fifth-year senior makes the list for the midseason top-10 list for the Jerry West award despite missing multiple weeks with a hamstring injury. When he has been available, Ellis averages 18.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game.
Ellis is one of nine other guards to make the midseason top-10 list for the Jerry West award with the others including Arizona's Caleb Love, Kansas' Kevin McCullar Jr., UNC's RJ Davis, Houston's LJ Cryer, Michigan State's Tyson Walker, Creighton's Trey Alexander, Kentucky's Antonio Reeves, FAU's Johnell Davis, and Baylor's Ja'Kobe Water.
This list will be narrowed down to five finalists in March. Whoever wins, will take over for reigning Jerry West award winner Marcus Sasser, who played for Houston. The other four runner-ups will be named to the Men's Starting Five list.
If Ellis were to win this award, it would be the biggest honor Ellis has received in his college basketball career. Ellis was previously named first-team All-Pac-12 in 2023 and was the ACC Sixth Man of the Year back when he played for the Memphis Tigers.
What could hurt Ellis's odds of winning the award, aside from missing games because of injury, is he plays on the team with easily the worst record of the top-10 contenders. The Trojans rank at the bottom of the Pac-12 with an 8-12 record and a 2-7 conference record. No matter how well Ellis plays, it may not be enough to overcome his team's overall performance during the award consideration process.
