It was around this time a year ago that Isaiah Mobley started to turn into the player that would become the backbone of this 2021-22 USC basketball team and a first-team All-Pac-12 selection.

He found his 3-point stroke and more consistency in general last March, but as much as anything he found his confidence and peace of mind.

As the Trojans now embark on another postseason push -- No. 3-seeded USC opens Pac-12 tournament play vs. No. 6 Washington at 8:30 p.m. PT Thursday night in Las Vegas -- and likely the last for Mobley, he reflected back on his three years in the program and his evolution to this point.

"Me being a five-star coming in, it was cool. I went through some ups and downs, broken a bone every season I've been here, but being able to learn and just run my own race," he said. "I feel a lot of people come in, especially with my status that I came in with, like expecting just to get in and get out. I've been able to run my race and I've enjoyed my journey. I think it's cool. I have no problem here on my third year trying to make another run. ... My journey I feel like has been pure."

Mobley leads the Trojans (25-6) in scoring at 14.6 points per game and rebounding (8.5 per game), ranks second in assists (3.1 per game) and has a team-high 27 blocks in what has been his best season yet.

He tested the NBA draft waters last spring, going through the pre-draft combine before electing to return to school, but it's presumed he will move on after this season.

"He's a competitor and I think you've seen that all season, and we all expect him to go into this Pac-12 tournament and NCAA knowing that this may be his last two tournaments he plays in," coach Andy Enfield said. "He has the option to come back to school next year, but I think we all assume he may not be back."

If Mobley can just channel what he did last postseason, that would serve as quite a send-off.

It started unassumingly last March. After making just 7 3-pointers during the regular season (mainly because he wasn't taking many attempts), Mobley went 4-of-4 on 3s over two Pac-12 tournament games to set the tone for what was to come.

Even still, he entered the NCAA tournament having scored in single digits in six out of the previous seven games. Nobody was quite expecting what came next.

Over four NCAA tournament games along USC's run to the Elite Eight, he'd average 16 points and 6.5 rebounds per game and shoot 6 of 11 from 3-point range (10 of 15, including those two Pac-12 tournament games).

"I was just playing hard and just having fun. I just let my whole game show and then just trusted my instincts and my abilities and what I worked on and let that fly in the game. That's what I plan to do this March," Mobley said.

"I just knew it was a big opportunity. I wasn't going to force myself onto it and just start taking bad shots or breaking the play, but I just said when I'm open I'm going to shoot it and I'm going to live with the results, shoot it freely -- if I make it, I make it; if I don't, I don't. Just believe in myself. So yeah, you could say it was a little bit of confidence."

He's shot a solid 37.6 percent from 3-point range this season (41 of 109), and while he's ebbed and flowed throughout the year, there is a noticeable switch that he's flipped in key moments of big games where it seems like he feels it's incumbent on him to put the team on his back for a stretch.

That has been the most significant addition to his game as a junior.

"Isaiah's improved as a basketball player. He's much stronger this season. If you compare him as a freshman, he'd always get knocked off balance in the lane. He had trouble with physicality, and now he's much stronger. He plays on balance, he finishes through contact," Enfield said. "Defensively, he's one of the best big-man defenders we've seen because he has such great anticipation. And he's an outstanding passer. It's hard to find somebody 6-10 with those assist totals and low turnovers. He is a special player when it comes to seeing the floor and his basketball feel for what's going on around him."

Again, it was a maturation process he had to go through. That freshman season may have been preceded by lofty expectations, but the reality was the broken foot he sustained prior to the season affected him more than he expected. All the while he was learning the rigors of the college game, which were also probably more than he expected.

From humbling freshman year to sophomore postseason breakout to focal point of a 25-win team as a junior, Mobley has put the work in to become the player he and the Trojans hoped he would be.

"The game's faster, stronger players, different stuff I didn't know, so I had to learn a lot. Early on I just expected so much of myself instead of just unpacking it and being a sponge and learning. Once I realized to do that, it helped me tremendously," he said, reflecting back. "So I try to pass that on to our younger guys. ... Time will tell. When everything's supposed to happen it will."

All that's left now is to write a final chapter.

That goes for this team as a whole, which set a program record for regular-season wins and is one away from tying the overall school record for wins in a season.

But the Trojans come into this Pac-12 tournament on their first losing streak of the season after falling to Arizona and UCLA last week -- the top two seeds in the conference.

"I think the team's turning the corner, practices have been good. It's the best time of the year too, so just excited," Mobley said.

Enfield echoed that confidence.

"We would like to go into Las Vegas and compete, play as hard as we can and play together -- and whatever happens will happen. We've had a very good season. We're 25-6, so as coaches we demand sometimes perfection when perfection is not achievable, but we try. If you just look at our season as a whole, they accomplished a lot, but everybody in this program wants to win games in Las Vegas and they want to win games in March Madness. How many games? That has to be determined on the floor. But we're excited to go to both tournaments and we expect to win," he said.

"... Coming off an Elite Eight run last season, our players are hungry to get back there. They know what it takes, so as a coaching staff we don't have to motivate them to go play hard. They know what's at stake, they've been there and they have experience."

USC played Washington just once during the regular season -- a 79-69 win back on Feb. 17.

That was the Chevez Goodwin game, as the veteran center scored 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting with 9 rebounds.

Washington was led by Terrell Brown Jr. (23 points) and Emmitt Matthews Jr. (20 points).

The Huskies (17-14) advanced in the bracket with an opening-round win over No. 11 Utah, 82-70, on Wednesday night.

Brown led the way with 22 points, while Jamal Bey scored 19 and Cole Bajema had 16 off the bench.

For the season, Brown, a graduate guard, is the clear focal point, averaging 21.7 points per game while Matthews, a 6-foot-7 senior forward, is the only other player averaging in double figures at 11.7 points per game.

Veteran guard Isaiah White continues to deal with the right wrist injury that has kept him out since Feb. 20.

"If he can go, he will, he's going to try his best, but I don't think that wrist will be healed until after the season," Enfield said.