Isaiah White smiled as he considered the question.

In scoring a team-high 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting Sunday night to lead USC past Oregon and into the Elite Eight for the first time in 20 years, the redshirt-senior guard had officially secured his place in Trojans basketball lore. So, had he considered at all that this is a performance and story he'll be talking about the rest of his life?

But the immediate aftermath of that 82-68 win over the Ducks in the Sweet 16 in Indianapolis, Ind., was not the time for true reflection just yet.

"I don't know, man. I'm just living in the moment. I'm not sure. I can't even ... I don't know. I'm just having fun and enjoying right now. I'm not even thinking about that right now," he said.

Later on, another reporter asked White if it was the best game he had ever played. He took a long pause and gave another smile.

"I would say so," he said.

It would be hard to beat.

White not only shot 80 percent from the field overall, but he did it from 3-point range while knocking down 4 of 5 long-distance attempts, continuing to work his sweet spot from the sides. He scored 12 of the Trojans' first 25 points in staking them to an early lead and he remained a factor the rest of the game as well.

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For a player who came into the night averaging 7.3 points per game, White's performance (just his second 20-point game of the season) was just another boost to a USC team that has been finding fresh momentum from a variety of sources. In his case, White had also scored 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the second round vs. Kansas while hitting 3 of 4 3-pointers. So over the last two games, on the biggest stage of his college basketball career, the the 6-foot-7 journeyman who arrived as an under-the-radar grad transfer from Utah Valley has averaged 17.5 points while shooting 13 of 17 overall from the field (76.5 percent) and 7 of 9 from 3-point range (77.8 percent).

Understandably, White was asked how this is happening.

"The energy of March Madness, the crowd and we know what's at stake -- it's do or die, so everyone is just going out there and laying it all out on the floor," he said. "... When we start off the game, I feel like the team feeds off my energy so I make sure out the gate I come with that energy and come with that heart and hopefully make someone else comfortable and then we just get to playing our game."

Much has been made all season about the incredible value USC has gotten out of four mid-major transfers in White, guard Tahj Eaddy (from Santa Clara), guard Drew Peterson (Rice) and forward Chevez Goodwin (Wofford).

USC coach Andy Enfield talked Sunday night about how the coaching staff identified White as a transfer target in particular and why they felt he would be a good fit.

"He went to Damien High School, which is in [La Verne] Calif. In fact, we have another player we signed, [Malik] Thomas, coming in from Damien -- it's a powerhouse. And Isaiah had a little unusual road. He went to junior college and went to Utah Valley. He got married, just had his first baby, so he's a father and what a wonderful young family they have. I'm so proud of him for him to come here to graduate school and have a young family, and I know his wife and his baby they mean so much to him," Enfield said.

"So when he came on our radar, we had three returning players in April and we said, 'Wow, we don't even have enough to put five on the court.' So we had to get after it on the transfer market, at least evaluate. And what we noticed is we knew he was from California, he was a really good person, we did a lot of research on him, talked to about 10 or 15 people and they all just raved about him as a quality individual. He's exceeded all our expectations. He's just the energy guy and what a nice young man. We're all just so proud of him."

Being an energy guy is one thing, and White has found a way to make an impact in many games this season, but leading the team in scoring in a Sweet 16 game is a different thing.

"When he scores we're a whole different team. When we can make 3s -- we made 11 against Kansas, made 10 tonight -- when we can shoot the ball at this level we're tough to beat," Enfield said. "I think some of our losses this year we've been very inconsistent from the perimeter and we're shooting the ball well as a team right now, so he's a big part of that."

White, meanwhile, was asked to reflect back Sunday night on his decision to come to USC and what he realistically expected for himself and for this team.

"I wasn't sure. I just knew we had talent coming in with Evan Mobley and a couple grad transfers. I knew that we had winners on the squad already from last year. And I knew coach Andy and the coaching staff were a good coaching staff, so I was just excited and I was ready to learn," he said.

The rest of college basketball is now learning that USC found quite a value in bringing the former Utah Valley standout back home to California.