USC basketball star Ethan Anderson has led the team to NCAA tournaments and electric wins over major school rivals. This season, the team finished third in the Pac-12 with a 26-8 record.
Now, Anderson is entering the transfer portal to find a new home. With two years left of eligibility, Anderson is committed to one day becoming an NBA player.
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Carson native and former USC men’s basketball guard Ethan Anderson started playing when he was four years old when his father took him to a YMCA in Gardena.
He attended Fairfax High School in Hollywood hoping to develop his basketball skills and play at a top Division 1 school. But it wasn’t a straightforward journey. He faced adversity by not looking like your typical player.
ETHAN ANDERSON: When I was in about sixth grade, that’s when I first kind of realized that I was decent at the game and I had like a chance to do a little bit of something. But I was extremely challenged, physically, height wise and athletically. So actually a ton of scouts were saying that I’m like a D-II player at best.
It was only when Anderson hit a growth spurt in eighth grade that interest rolled in. He began getting offers from schools and programs across the country as a high school junior… but his eyes were set on UNLV.
Unfortunately, soon after Anderson signed his letter of intent to attend, UNLV’s coach was fired, and Anderson de-committed.
That led him to USC.
ANDERSON: USC presented itself because they had an open spot for someone like me. And in our meetings, their goals for me were a lot different than what they actually came to fruition because they thought, Oh, my first year I’ll be getting like less than 5 minutes. But thankfully I just think… I was I’m here for I was here for a reason.
As a current junior, Anderson describes his time at USC as nothing short of amazing. He was able to play the game that he loves and his family had a front row seat to see his success.
ANDERSON: But when you’re from L.A., especially for me and I’m from the heart of L.A., I played at Fairfax. It’s a different level. Respect you have when you grow up here and you play here in college. And so that really held a lot of weight for me. In other places were two plane rides away and I don’t really want to be that far away from home, one of my family to be able to see me on a moment’s notice. And that’s been a huge blessing in my life to have my mom and have my dad and my brother and everybody else to be able to see me.
At USC, Anderson made headlines and became a fan favorite. He averaged 4 points, 2assists, and 2 rebounds per game during this last season.
However, many say the Trojans did not perform as well as they should have or could have. They were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA March Madness tournament.
Anderson needed to make a change, and announced that he was entering the transfer portal.
ANDERSON: Well, I sat down with the coaches coming into a meeting thinking that this is going to be home for me still. But they kind of mutually agreed in terms of my unhappiness and the things that they thought that I lacked, too. They just were kind of moving on in terms of I can stay if I want to, but it’s just ‘we don’t know what’s going to really happen for you.’ And so I just decided that my worth was greater than that.
The likes of TCU, Nevada, UC Santa Barbara, and even other Pac-12 schools like Cal, Oregon State, and Washington State pursued Anderson. But he knew he did not want to come back to Galen and face USC.
Now… the million-dollar question is… why did Anderson decide on Wyoming?
ANDERSON: I spoke with a lot of the teammates I’m going to have there, and they just expressed to me how much they wanted me, how much they needed me. They were for me in this process was me like I’m sure a lot of schools wanted me to come and be the player I was at USC, play defense, kind of orchestrate the game, but I wanted somewhere that needed me. So we all expressed the need for me, express that with me to be this much better without me…
Anderson will be joined at Wyoming by another former teammate at USC… another USC forward Max, who also transferred around the same time as Anderson.
The two first met and became teammates when they were 15 years old.
The two went on an official visit and fell in love with Wyoming’s facilities, coaching staff, and team culture.
Even though Anderson will no longer be dressed in cardinal and gold he says that USC and the fans still hold a special place in his heart.
ANDERSON: The fan support that I got throughout these years has been amazing. I’m so happy that I got. See the fans. Fan attendance is to grow throughout the time I was here. The me, the Max, we were like the most winningest players in the program history in terms of percentage. And so that’s huge for me being from here. And that’s huge. And that’s really thanks to the fans because in college basketball, fans can make the win or lose a game because of how loud they are…
Anderson will spend his last two years of college basketball at Wyoming and has dreams of eventually ending up in the NBA.