Memphis is on Boogie Ellis’ mind at March Madness
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Boogie Ellis watched Sunday, just like all of Memphis did. He watches his old team a lot, to keep up with the teammates that remain from his two years with the Tigers, and so he was happy when they finally took down No. 1 Houston.
“It’s great that they were able to get a championship for the city of Memphis,” Ellis said Thursday from Nationwide Arena, where he and No. 10 seed USC will play No. 7 seed Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament at the same venue as Memphis this week.
Ellis and the Tigers can’t officially cross paths on the court until the Elite Eight, but they’ve stayed in touch over the two years since Ellis transferred to USC.
It is one of those situations that worked out for both sides. Memphis, under Penny Hardaway, made it to March Madness for the second year in a row. So too did Ellis, and he arrives this season as USC’S leading scorer.
The happenstance of being in the same place as his former team also brought on reflection, back to a time when the hype surrounding Memphis and Hardaway peaked. Ellis was a late flip from Duke as part of Hardaway’s ballyhooed No. 1 recruiting class, committing to the Tigers four days before Precious Achiuwa did.
Of the seven players who came to Memphis that year, only Malcolm Dandridge remains with the Tigers. James Wiseman and Achiuwa are both playing in the NBA. Lester Quinones left Memphis after three years and scored 46 points in a G League game with the Santa Cruz Warriors on Wednesday.
D.J. Jeffries (Mississippi State), Damion Baugh (TCU) and Ellis all transferred after Memphis won the 2021 NIT championship, and they’re each participating in the NCAA Tournament this week.
It is a reflection of the transient times in college basketball, and yet gratifying to see how it all worked out, even if it didn’t work out the way any of them expected during those initial days in Memphis.
“I’m just happy to see everyone becoming successful, everybody eating,” Ellis said. “I’m real happy to see it, seriously, because we all started together and we all had the same goal.
“Everybody has their own journey. Everybody thought that (they’d be oneand-done) going in. But everybody took a different path. Not everybody has the same path. I’m just glad that I got to get better every year, just embrace my journey, and it made me who I am today.”
Who he is today appears to be what he was starting to show towards the end of his time at Memphis. Ellis is averaging more than 18 points and 3 assists per game while shooting better than 39% from 3-point-range.
He said he misses the food in Memphis, specifically Ching’s Wings and American Deli. He noted the chicken wings in Southern California simply don’t compare to what Memphis has to offer. But he doesn’t miss waking up in the middle of the night to the sounds of freight trains passing through campus.
It was a culture shock, Ellis noted,
when he came to Memphis from San Diego. After the COVID-19 impacted 2020-21 season, he decided to make a change.
“The player that I wanted to be there I got to become that here at (USC),” he said. “I really just wanted to get back home, play in front of my family. Whatever Coach Penny wanted me to do, whatever he had me do, I was willing to sacrifice and do whatever I needed to do for the team. It was just me wanting to get back home.”
But Ellis still appreciates the progress he made as a point guard under Hardaway, noting that “Penny taught me a lot.”
This NCAA Tournament is going to be his last games playing college basketball, Ellis added, and “it’s real crazy” that his journey will, in a way, end near where it started.
He still talks with Hardaway around the holidays each year and Ellis said he spoke with Memphis senior Alex Lomax Wednesday. They were catching up on all they missed these past two seasons apart and all they accomplished together, now that they’re back in the same place again.
“Just being there, they really embraced me, really took me in,” Ellis said. “Memphis has one of the greatest fan bases … and I really appreciate that. I’m glad for their success and I’m just happy we’re both here.”
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto