The details of USC's Elite Eight game with Gonzaga on Tuesday seem destined to become a footnote in history.

That the Trojans even made it this far is what will ultimately shape the narrative coming off this surprising season and memorable March Madness run. It's what will distinguish this team in program history, matching the best finish for a USC basketball team since 1954 when the tournament was just 16 teams and hardly the national spectacle it is today.

More simply put, it's fair to call this one of the greatest USC basketball seasons in history.

That will be the enduring impact of all this, long after the 85-66 loss to top-seeded, undefeated Gonzaga fades -- merely the latest in 27 straight double-digit wins for the Bulldogs, who certainly look like the best damn team in this NCAA tournament and perhaps one of the best college basketball teams we've seen in the last 20 years. That will depend, of course, on what they do in the Final Four.

Anyways, we could use this space to rehash how USC fell behind 17-4 and later 25-8 by being a little too sloppy and perhaps a little too overwhelmed by the Goliath on the other side of the court. We could fixate on the Trojans' struggles in transition defense, the Zags' 41-29 rebounding advantage and 46-32 edge on points in the paint, or how the shooting finally went cold for USC in this tournament (38.7 percent overall Tuesday, 4 of 15 on 3-pointers).

USC coach Andy Enfield addressed all of that in his recap of what went wrong.

"We turned the ball over a few times early in the game and they had a lot of points in the paint early off of our turnovers, and then we missed a lot of easy shots. I think there was one stretch we were trying to cut into the lead and our post players missed three straight jump hooks or layups and that was six points and they went down and scored and that extended the lead from 6 to 7 to 13 to 14 at the time. And it's tough to come back on this team because they're so good in transition and they certainly were making shots," he said.

"We didn't do our part offensively. It was a little unusual because we've been playing so well offensively -- we haven't been turning the ball over, we've been making shots and we've been playing together as a team. I thought we got sped up a little bit at times in the first half because we were trying too hard after our slow start, but once again it was a little surprising because we've been playing great basketball.”

As Enfield later added, he thought the last 30 minutes of the game were played pretty evenly, "but it was too late."

That's the story of this one in a nutshell, but again the story of this team, of this season is a much more compelling use of this space.

RELATED: Watch Andy Enfield and Evan Mobley react to the end of their March Madness run

The historical context is important to understanding what this means for the Trojans.

Officially, the program is credited with Final Four appearances in 1940 (when it was an eight-team tournament) and 1954 (16 teams). But in those 67 years since, only three other USC teams had even reached the Round of 16 before this year (1961, 2001 and 2007), and only one (2001) had reached the Elite Eight.

So, in what amounts to almost the length of a lifetime, only one USC team had done what this team just accomplished by getting this far on the bracket.

"This is a very special team in USC basketball history, to be 25-8, make the Elite Eight and I just can't say enough about these guys," Enfield said. "I know tonight was not the result we all wanted, but these guys are winners in here. We were picked sixth in the preseason in our own league and came in the top eight in the country. To do that, this is a really special basketball team and we're very, very proud of them."

Said star freshman Evan Mobley, who it is expected played his final game with the Trojans on Tuesday before becoming a NBA draft lottery pick: "I mean, we did great. A lot of predictions before the season didn't predict us to go anywhere this far. We were picked like sixth in the Pac-12. We're one of the top eight teams in America. I'm just happy we came this far and we left it all out there on the floor."

Really, who could have predicted this?

Yes, the Trojans had Mobley, one of the top national recruits, but they also refashioned the bulk of their rotation around four mid-major transfers in Tahj Eaddy (from Santa Clara), Drew Peterson (Rice), Isaiah White (Utah Valley) and Chevez Goodwin (Wofford).

Eaddy and White were the stars of the Trojans' Sweet 16 win over Oregon on Sunday night. Peterson had some big games throughout the season and chipped in 13 points and 6 rebounds Tuesday. Goodwin was a valuable big off the bench.

All of that has been noted a lot these last couple weeks, but along with the historical context it's kind of necessary framing to fully convey how impressive this postseason was for the program.

"We're so proud of our players. We had a brand new team and they didn't get to know each other until school started. There was no summer. We didn't even get to meet our players until -- half our team we never met in person until Sept. 1," Enfield said of the unusual obstacles in this COVID year. "So in my coaching career, I've never seen a team develop a chemistry and a culture on and off the court like this team has. They improved dramatically from the start of training camp throughout the season, [kept] getting better and better, and I think you saw that in the NCAA tournament. We became a very good basketball team, and off the court they have a very strong bond. They're just a lot of fun to be around."

They were also a lot of fun to watch these last couple weeks.

Evan Mobley solidified his sky-high draft stock, averaging 17.6 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3 blocks over the last six games, starting in the Pac-12 tournament. When his scoring dipped against Kansas and Oregon the previous two games, he balanced it out while leading the Trojans with 11 total assists over those two wins. He finished with 17 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists Tuesday.

His older brother Isaiah Mobley, meanwhile, reached another level in this NCAA tournament, averaging 16 points over the four games. He had 19 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists in the loss to Gonzaga. Suddenly, he looks like a centerpiece that the Trojans can build around next year.

The individual stories with Eaddy (so many big shots and big games this season) and White (who played his two best games back-to-back vs. Kansas and Oregon) will be part of Trojans' lore as well.

It may feel like an abrupt ending -- the game really seemed decided early in that first half -- but Gonzaga has a way of doing that to teams, with two projected top NBA draft picks in Jalen Suggs (18 points Tuesday) and Corey Kispert (18 points) and one of the best big men in the country in Drew Timme (23 points).

Ultimately, in the broader picture, USC goes into the offseason not with a defeat but with a major win from this collective postseason run and something to build upon in the years to come.

Ironically, Enfield has rarely seemed as at ease or loose in a postgame press conference as he did Tuesday night. When a reporter asked what it would take for a team to beat this 30-0 Gonzaga squad, he joked that he probably wasn't the right guy to ask before proceeding to give a thoughtful answer.

Most of this year, of recent years, Enfield has been on the defensive, feeling the need to constantly reiterate USC's resume -- that his Trojans had the most wins in program history over a three-year, four-year, five-year stretch, etc. -- or recite stats about assists or defense that showed where his program stood.

But for the fans, it was all about the postseason results -- or lack thereof. USC had just two NCAA tournament wins (both coming in 2017, including a First Four game) in Enfield's first seven seasons. Granted, he didn't have the opportunity to see what his 2019-20 team (featuring another NBA lottery pick in Onyeka Okongwu) could do when the tournament was cancelled. Suddenly, though, he now holds the Trojans coaching record for most career NCAA tournament wins.

It's amazing what a great March can do.

Of course, Enfield knows that better than anyone. He parlayed a Sweet 16 run with 15-seed Florida Gulf Coast in 2013 into landing this USC job a few weeks later. Now, he'll try to leverage this Trojans run on the recruiting trail, in the transfer market and within the fan base to keep moving this program forward.

Maybe Enfield didn't get the credit he felt he deserved earlier, but he's going to get it now -- and he definitely deserves it for this season. (Even if he still felt the need to pull out some supporting arguments Tuesday to bolster the case).

"I think this season was very important for our program, to make the Elite Eight for the second time in 67 years is a credit to our players and what they accomplished this season. We're 25-8, we won 47 games the last two years, which is another accomplishment -- I think that's third in the nation in power conferences. So, yeah, this was important for us to win some games in March Madness," Enfield said. "Last year March Madness was cancelled and last year I thought our team could win some games like this year's team, so this was even more special because a few of the guys who were on last year's team didn't get a chance to participate in the NCAA tournament. Yeah, I think this was a very important tournament for us.

"I think it shows the Pac-12 and USC can compete at the national level and we've been doing that for the last five or six years."

Now, he's going to find a lot more willing believers. Now, the fun -- and the challenge -- is to see what he and the Trojans can do in the coming years.

Henry Bibby, who coached that 2001 USC Elite Eight team, recalled thinking after that run 20 years ago that it was going to be the start of something, while his assistant coach Dave Miller cautioned him about the whims of March.

"I said, 'I can't wait to get back here next year.' He said, 'Coach, you might not ever get back to here again.' I said, 'Yeah, we'll be able to do it next year,'" Bibby recalled.

The Trojans lost in the first round the next year and, as noted, the program didn't make it back to this point for another 20 years.

But USC basketball does seem in a much better place now than then. The resources are night and day improved, and Enfield can indeed sell an extended trajectory -- almost certainly back-to-back NBA lottery picks, first-round picks in three straight years overall, proven success as a landing spot for grad transfers, five 20-win seasons in the last six years, etc. (He most certainly will have all those facts at the ready -- be it for recruits or reporters).

Best of all, though, the Trojans are now living in the lingering glow of this memorable month of March -- and nothing that happened Tuesday changes that in the least.