It's been 20 years since the USC men's basketball program reached its modern-era high-water mark, making an unexpected run as a No. 6 seed all the way to the Elite Eight in 2001.

No Trojans team had advanced that far in the two decades that have followed ... until Sunday night, when another overachieving No. 6 seed put USC back in the Elite Eight with an 82-68 win over Oregon.

For a program that has only had three teams even reach the Sweet 16 since the early 1960s -- that 2001 group, the 2007 team and this current 2021 bunch that may still have history yet to write -- those two Elite Eight teams now stand apart as the standard-bearers in program lore.

And this latest March Madness run has brought about a wave of nostalgia for the stars of that '01 team that came a game away from the Final Four.

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"Definitely, the memories come running through your head," said Desmon Farmer, who was a freshman on that team and is now going through it again with these Trojans as a graduate assistant. "I talk to the guys about it all the time. Since we've been here I've been talking to them and letting them know it's one of the best feelings to be in this situation and we just need to take advantage of it, guys need to be happy and enjoy it and keep fighting."

"Absolutely. We're talking about it. We're all excited," former starting guard Jeff Trepagnier said.

Trepagnier rattled off more than half the roster in naming the former teammates he's talked to during this postseason. Former star forward Sam Clancy and key veteran bench presence Jarvis Turner echoed the same sentiment of how the players from that team have always remained close, but this current Trojans run has given them a fresh reason to reflect back on their greatest moment.

"Yeah, it's definitely nostalgic," Turner said. "I think there's a lot of similarities that our group shares with this group in terms of just their cohesiveness, their togetherness. It seems like they have great camaraderie. I know they're getting energy from Desmon Farmer because he's still full of energy. He was with our group and I see him on the sideline celebrating with their guys. But it's definitely exciting to see them doing what they're doing, making the impact that they're making.

"When we were going through it, we didn't actually know the impact we were having on the university and our fans and our student body and just everybody associated with USC basketball back then, because there really was no social media and we were just kind of living in the moment."

Twenty years later, five players from that 2001 Elite Eight team and head coach Henry Bibby took time to reminisce on what that moment meant -- for them, for the basketball program, for the university, etc. -- while sharing some memorable stories from that run.

What follows is an oral history of the 2001 USC March Madness experience and some valuable context for what these current Trojans are chasing.

"I think it changed all our lives. It changed all of lives," Clancy said.

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Twenty years may have passed, but the memories are so vivid and full of color the way Henry Bibby tells them from the other end of the phone. For more than 20 minutes, he relives that March Madness run, the context in which it happened -- and that context is key to appreciating how special that postseason was -- and the impact it has on his life and career still.

From one call to the next -- more than 100 minutes of interviews with those that lived that experience -- the picture comes into full focus, the reflections and anecdotes weave together to tell the whole story of who that 2001 USC basketball team was, how it managed to accomplish what no Trojans team since has been able to (at least entering Sunday) and what it all meant.

This is their story in their words ...

Henry Bibby: "I thought we were good players and we could compete. But Arizona was better at the time and they had more name players, and UCLA had more name players, Stanford had their guys. We were kind of in the middle of the pack. I was hoping for a good season, you always hope for a good season, but you never know when you're playing against UCLA, Arizona, Stanford that can recruit all over the United States and get in the houses of the best kids. We weren't able to do that, so we kind of got the second-tier guys, so to speak. 'SC's been a football school. Basketball wasn't ever a priority. If they win some games that's good. [Athletic director] Mike Garrett had told me, 'We want to be competitive with UCLA and Stanford and Cal because our alumni's on the west coast,' so those were the games he wanted me to be close in. If we could win some of those games it was a plus. If we're close in those games it was a plus as well."

Forward David Blu (formerly Bluthenthal): "We practiced in the ROTC building. We used to practice in the North Gym and I don't know if they've fixed the windows, but I remember there was broken windows. That's where we practiced. We would have to change and walk over to the North Gym, and sometimes the volleyball team would be there so we'd have to go to the South Gym. Here we are this Pac-10 big-time basketball team practicing in this little gym. Sometimes we'd go to the Lyon Center because both gyms were being used. We only practiced at the [Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena] on the day of the game. So Henry Bibby used to say every game for us is like a road game. So we learned how to win on the road and in neutral environments because every game was a neutral environment for us. We had 2,000 fans in a 20,000 seat arena. ... That drove us. We didn't have the Galen Center or video games in our locker room. We loved it, though. We enjoyed that and that drove us."

Bibby: "We painted the sports arena. My coaches and I went in and painted the locker room in the Sports Arena because of how run-down it was. For us to get recruits we had to take them to a place that was nice so we ended up painting the locker room in the Sports Arena ourselves. No one would believe it -- that's what we did. For our players, that's where their home was and we wanted them to feel like we appreciated what they were doing."

As for the construction of that 2000-01 roster, Bibby reiterated not having the recruiting reach of even other teams in the conference like UCLA and Arizona, so he tried to focus on collecting Southern California talent and finding underrated prospects or hidden gems.

Asked who the big get was recruiting-wise on that roster, he retorts "There was no big get."

Bibby: "We were just getting what we could get. We were trying to get local kids on the team. [Point guard] Brandon Granville, who we got late, he wasn't being recruited by anybody higher than Santa Barbara. So 'SC was a great school for him, big-time for him compared to some of the small schools that were recruiting him. Not a lot of people recruited Jeff Trepagnier [from Compton] because he didn't really have a position so people didn't really know how to look at him. I remember my assistant coach Dave Miller and I were looking at Jeff Trepagnier in Indiana, and Jeff played so bad and I was so happy that he played bad because I wanted him -- I really wanted the kid. ...

"David Bluthenthal was kind of an average player that wanted to go to UCLA and UCLA never recruited him. ... Brian Scalabrine wanted to come south [after spending two years at Highline College in Des Moines, Wash.]. He was kind of a borderline [prospect] ... Sam Clancy had most of the accolades, out of Cleveland [Ohio]. Cincinnati wanted him really bad, so we kind of fell into that. He came out when the snow was on the ground in Cleveland and decided this was where he wanted to go to school. So we kind of fell into all those guys."

Clancy, a 6-foot-7 forward, would average 17.3 points and 7.5 rebounds as a junior that 2000-01 season and then go on to win Pac-12 Player of the Year honors the next year. Scalabrine, a 6-foot-9 senior center who would spend more than a decade in the NBA, averaged 14.7 PPG and 5.9 RPG. Blu (then Bluthenthal) averaged 13.5 PPG and 6.8 RPG as a 6-foot-7 junior forward. Granville, a 5-foot-9 junior point guard, averaged 12.4 PPG and 6.1 assists per game and would finish as the Trojans career leader in assists and steals. Trepagnier, a senior guard, contributed 9.0 PPG and 5.1 RPG and had set the single-season record with 94 steals the previous year. Farmer scored 6.4 PPG as a freshman guard and would go on to lead the Trojans in scoring in 2003 and 2004. Turner chipped in 3.6 PPG off the bench as a senior forward. And senior guard Tyler Murphy and sophomore guard Robert Hutchinson rounded out the rotation that 2001 postseason. (The rest of the roster, including walk-ons, was senior Abdullah Elmagbari, junior Rob Eres and Jamie Hooper, sophomores Nate Hair, Kostas Charissis and Gennaro Busterna and freshman Luke Minor

Bibby: "I've never been so proud of a group, and every kid brought something different to the table. Brandon Granville was just the best point guard I've ever had to this day, of knowing what Henry Bibby wanted as a coach. David Bluthenthal, I never knew he was that good. The kid got 27 rebounds one night (actually a program-record 28 vs. Arizona State) and could shoot it. Unbelievable. And how good Sam Clancy was, how athletic he was, Pac-10 player of the year, a rebounding and scoring machine, that kind of guy. Brian Scalabrine, the cerebral part he brought to the game. Jeff Trepagnier, the athleticism. Jarvis Turner, a great sixth man to come off the bench. We had a kid Hutchinson from back east. Desmon Farmer, who accepted his role as a backup player to come in and give us great minutes. I just had a great group of guys and they knew what I wanted. Brandon Granville could have coached the team -- he knew what I wanted. I didn't have to work because he did it all for me."

Jarvis Turner: "BG is probably one of the most underrated point guards in the history of NCAA basketball. I just look at the game the way it's played now, I look at the game the way it was played then, and I see his impact on our program, on our success and I can't say enough about what he did as our leader on the floor, as our general. He's probably one of the most underrated guards, I think, in the history of NCAA basketball. He was a guy who probably averaged 38-39 minutes a game. He definitely was an extension of Coach Bibby. He knew where to get guys the basketball, he knew how to handle personalities like Dave and Jeff. So I can't say enough about his impact on that run. He never really got a lot of the credit that he deserved, but I think he was a crucial part of our entire success.

"At our 2 we had Jeff Trepagnier, who I would say was probably one of the top 5 athletes in the country at that time. And then we had David Bluthenthal at the small forward, who was a big body, great shooter, flourished in his role. He was kind of like the stretch 4 rebounder, shooter before the stretch 4 came out. And of course Sam Clancy -- if injuries didn't plague his career at the next level I think he would have had a pretty successful NBA career just because of his work ethic and his ability to play. And Sam had a very high basketball acumen, he was highly intelligent, had a high basketball IQ. And of course Big Red (Scalabrine), or I called him Big Fred because he looks more like a Fred than a Red to me. But Big Fred, he's self explanatory. This guy was all about basketball, all about getting better, all about improving, and you see what he's done in his career.

"From 1 to 5, you look at that lineup and I feel that's a lineup you can put pretty much against anybody in the country."

Farmer: "That team in 2001 was a veteran team. Most of those guys were juniors. I was the only freshman on the team that year, so our team was veteran, well coached, those guys had played together for two to three years so the chemistry was there. It was just about believing that you could win. Our guys always thought we were better than a lot of teams that were at that tournament."

Trepagnier: "We were a tight unit off the court. Like we all hung out off the court every day. So we were all real good buddies, we all wanted to see each other do well. There wasn't any ulterior motives from anybody. We all wanted to see each other succeed and that helped."

Blu: "I think [it was] our level of competitiveness and ability to not let things mentally affect us, but I think probably the biggest part was our toughness and our competitiveness."

Clancy: "I think what made us so special was that we didn't have any egos on the team. Everybody knew their role and everybody was willing to play their role just to win. If I shot 20 shots and bad shots, nobody came and said, 'Sam, that's a bad shot.' We all picked each other up, we all rallied behind each other and we all had each other's back, and we were close on the court and off the court."

Turner: "I don't think Coach Bibby gets enough credit for what he did as well, for his impact. He was one of the brightest minds in the game at that point of time, just in terms of offensively putting us in situations to be successful. ... He played [at UCLA] and learned under John Wooden, had a great career in the NBA, seen a lot of basketball. One of the reasons maybe he doesn't get the credit he deserves is just because he wasn't an all-out people's person. He had an off-beat personality and not everybody was at that point of time too keen on that. But he was extremely brilliant, a great basketball mind, and he gave us the confidence to go out there and do our thing.

"[Having played] point guard, he would see things and implement it right there on the spot. Give credit to our guys and our group, we'd be able to pick things up on the fly, comprehend it and implement it. I think that was a big part of our success. We had tons and tons of sets, probably about 70 sets over the course of a year, which is a crazy. But he definitely deserves a big portion of that credit as well."

Bibby: "I wouldn't want any different players than what I had. I don't care what player was in the conference, I would take what I got and we went as far as we can with those guys. I was proud of them and ... the kids let us coach them to the way that we could push and get the most out of them. They let us do that, so it was a two-way street. It wasn't just us coaching -- the kids wanted to be coached the way we wanted to coach them."

USC finished tied for fourth in the then-Pac-10 that season, going 11-7 in the conference, and had been ranked as high as No. 12 nationally early in the season while starting off 8-0. But the end of the season was a little rockier, including a stretch of five losses in eight games before winning the final three games of the regular season.

The Trojans were given a No. 6 seed in the East Region and would open the postseason against No. 11 Oklahoma State.

The players recall feeling very little pressure of expectations entering the tournament, and they fed off the way they were viewed relative to the traditional college basketball powers on their side of the bracket -- which included No. 1 seed Duke, No. 2 Kentucky and No. 4 UCLA.

And in some cases, it wasn't just perception or narratives that drove the slights.

Clancy: "Honestly, when we were in that moment, we were in the moment. For us, it was Coach Bibby's first tournament, it was all of our first tournament experience, so we were just there to soak in the moment. We didn't know what to expect, we didn't know anything, so we were just playing free. We had no pressure. ... We just went in there loose with nothing to lose."

Blu: "I'm not going to say disrespect because nobody was saying that we were bad players, nobody was saying that we didn't have talent, but nobody gave us the credit for it -- or at least we felt like that. So we had played with a chip on our shoulder and that was something that Henry Bibby had talked a lot about was taking a look around at the [Pac-10] and college basketball environment, looking at all the different recognition that some of the other players got. We didn't get the latest Nikes the way some of the other teams got so we were very motivated to individually prove that we were worthy of the respect from the basketball community."

Trepagnier: "That's when the Nike Shox had first come out, the Vince Carter's, and we were a Nike school and we asked Nike can we get them? And they were like, no, you guys aren't on a big enough scale to receive these shoes. It was like, you guys get to the Sweet 16 and then we'll send them to you. That was more motivation, like, dang, we can't even get new shoes. We're a Nike school and we can't even get the exclusives. We just had a chip on our shoulder the whole tournament."

Clancy: "The Nike Shox had come out and teams had them all year. Stanford had them all year, and we were in the tournament and we wanted them. We're a Nike school, we tell coach, 'Coach, we're in the tournament, we want these Nike Shox.' ... So they called Nike and Nike comes back and is like, no, you can't get the Shox unless you make the Sweet 16. Nike is like, no way are you guys going to make the Sweet 16. No way I've got to give this bum team USC any of our Shox. These are only reserved for the Duke's and the Kentucky's and everything. But if you watch in our Sweet 16 game, we had our brand new Shox on. ... Everybody felt like we shouldn't be there, so we had a chip on our shoulder that a lot of people didn't know about."

Turner: "You know what, there was a whole lot of stuff going on. ... Even our lodging situation. I think we ended up staying at the Four Seasons because they tried to give us the runaround with some hotels that weren't to our liking. We felt that we were a certain level of caliber, Coach Bibby did as well and he carried us that way and I believe we ended up staying at the Four Seasons. ... I don't distinctly remember what happened. I just know there was an issue. I remember it being an issue, 'No, we're not doing that.'"

USC opened up against Oklahoma State, which had endured tragedy that January when a plane carrying eight members of the program, including broadcasters and staff, had crashed, killing everyone on board.

That became part of the public narrative for that first-round game, with public sentiment strongly in the favor of Oklahoma State as it looked to honor the memory of the people it had lost by making a run in the tournament.

Trepagnier: "In the first round against Oklahoma State, that was the year that one of their team planes had crashed and [members] of the staff had died. They sort of became America's team for the tournament. Everybody wanted them to win -- nobody wanted us to beat them. Everybody was rooting for them. So we just came out and played hard."

Bibby: "They were the Cinderella team, everybody wanted them to beat us, and I was like, 'Gosh, how could we play this team?' Because I felt bad for the team too with the people they lost."

USC won, 69-54, at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., to advance to a second-round matchup with No. 3-seed Boston College. The Trojans had jumped out to a 48-19 first-half lead against the Cowboys and cruised from there as Clancy led the way with 22 points,13 rebounds 4 blocks and 2 steals, Trepagnier did a little of everything with 17 points, 8 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, Granville had 14 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals and Scalabrine added 11 points and 7 boards.

The Trojans then held on for a 74-71 win over Boston College, which was 27-4 entering that game. USC was led by 20 points from Blu, 18 points and 3 steals from Trepagnier and 14 points, 12 boards and 4 blocks from Clancy.

That set up a Sweet 16 matchup with No. 2 Kentucky as the Trojans stayed on the east coast, with their games shifting to Philadelphia.

Despite two strong wins to start the tournament, their feeling as outsiders had only been reinforced.

Clancy: "I felt like we were the most disrespected team in the tournament at that time. After we won, I'll never forget, we had Fox Sports following us, we had our USC sweatsuits on, we're walking around in Madison Square Garden and Times Square and stuff. We're California guys, we didn't think everyone would recognize us, but everybody on the street knew us, everybody was like, 'USC, you're about to get killed by Kentucky. You guys suck. You're not going to win nothing, go back to L.A., you're all soft.' Everybody. I'm talking about everybody in New York, everybody knows us by name, they're killing us. That was a big shocker."

Meanwhile, Bibby tried to push the right buttons with his team.

Bibby: "I went to a couple of leadership classes, I went to some CEO classes up in Bakersfield. I did that every year, just learning how to motivate. I'm not a big motivator, I don't necessarily believe in motivating -- I believe people have to be self-motivated -- but the ones that weren't motivated I had to learn how to do that as a coach. We were in the Sweet 16, we had all the guys rehearse cutting the net down. We got a basket in the ballroom in Philadelphia and we had everybody go up and cut a piece of the net down. I wanted my guys to see what it felt like to do what they needed to do. It's all psychological. I had guys sit in a dark room, close your eyes in a dark room and imagine your best game -- put your best game in you mind that you ever played to bring that back to you."

Turner: "Coach Bibby was a guy, he used a lot of cliches, but he was also a pretty real guy. A lot of coaches, a lot of people will say let's be in the moment, let's not look too far ahead. But I think Coach Bibby was realistic in his approach -- let's see the bigger picture. ... Oh yeah, he had us practice cutting down the nets. He had us practice holding the trophy over our heads. I'm sure Coach Bibby was in the mirror probably with his suit and tie on practicing his victory speech. I'm pretty certain he rehearsed his victory speech and what he was going to say."

Blu: "We soaked it up -- 100 percent. We enjoyed it, we knew it was happening, we loved all the media hype, all the fans, as young men should. Our coaches did a great job of keeping us grounded and staying humble and motivated. That was big for our coaching staff was to make sure that even though we had success and we continued to climb up that ladder, that we always remembered where we came form -- the North gym with broken windows and the small locker room and certainly not what other schools around the country had. So we needed to make sure that we stayed humble and remembered the hard work that it took to get to that point and continue on until you finish the job."

USC again jumped out to a big early lead with an aggressive, pressing defense, going up 43-24 at halftime against the No. 2-seeded Wildcats before things got tight down the stretch.

The Trojans eventually closed out an 80-76 win, as Blu finished with 27 points, Clancy added 17 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocks, Trepagnier had 14 points, 6 boards and 4 steals, Scalabine chipped in 13 points and 6 boards and Granville added 7 points and 8 assists.

That Kentucky team, coached by Tubby Smith, was led by future NBA players Tayshaun Prince and Keith Bogans.

With the win, USC moved on to the Elite Eight for the first time in the modern history of the program. The Trojans are credited with two Final Four appearances in 1940 (when it was an eight-team tournament) and 1954 (16-team tournament), but college basketball has obviously changed dramatically since then in terms of depth of competition and so the 2001 Elite Eight appearance stands out as a major achievement in program history.

Clancy: "We had no pressure. We had zero pressure, and here's why. We came in as a sixth seed from the Pac-10 and we had struggled coming into the tournament. When we played Kentucky in that Sweet 16 game, the whole talk of everything -- because the tournament's all about narratives -- the whole talk of the tournament was Kentucky, Duke for the Elite Eight because that would be the rematch they had in [1998] or something. The whole world was looking for the rematch, so they were kind of upset that we went in there and knocked off Kentucky. I'm sure we took a lot of money away from the NCAA and I don't think they were too happy for that. ...

"When you're in that game you could feel that they wanted it by some of the calls that are called -- 'That was questionable, I understand.' So we didn't have pressure because we're playing the biggest teams in college basketball. We're playing David vs. Goliath. We're just trying to take down the giants."

Blu: "We were motivated. It was UCLA, Duke, Kentucky and USC. That was the round, so it was like these great tradition powerhouse [programs] and then it was USC. So we really wanted to prove that we were meant to be there. I had known some of those players. Personally, I had played against Tayshaun for many years growing up, so that was exciting to get to play against him in such a big-time situation. ... Henry Bibby, he would show us, 'They've written us off. They say that we are the ones that don't belong in this group of four,' and that motivates you. When you're a gladiator, when you're a warrior and somebody says you can't do it or you're not good enough, that motivates us. So we were very highly motivated. It's one thing to be motivated, but we also had the talent. We had the physical toughness, so you combine those things and also the strategy -- the coaches came up with a great defensive strategy -- and we always trusted the coaches' opinions and what they had planned for us. And we made shots. So it kind of all came together that game."

Trepagnier: "Oh, [the spotlight increased] like 100 times each round getting closer and closer to the championship. There's always more pressure, more eyes on you and we talked about it -- let's get to the next round. We were able to handle the pressure. Like I said, we didn't have anything to lose."

Bibby: "If they had another hour they probably would have beat us, but they didn't have that. The game's not that long."

That 2001 Duke team lost just four times all year and featured future NBA players Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer, Jay Williams, Mike Dunleavy and Chris Duhon.

The Blue Devils would go on to win the national championship, winning every NCAA tournament game by double digits, including an ultimate 82-72 win over Arizona in the finals.

Duke's 79-69 win over USC in the Elite Eight matched its narrowest margin of victory in that postseason. All of the Trojans' starters played at least 34 minutes in that game, as Bibby had leaned heavily on his key guys all tournament, and they again got big contributions across the board with Clancy totaling 19 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks, Blu adding 17 points and 13 boards, Scalabrine scoring 13 and Trepagnier chipping in 11 points and 6 rebounds.

Williams had a game-high 28 points for Duke and would later become the No. 2 overall pick in the NBA draft the following year while Battier (20 points, 10 rebounds) was the No. 6 overall pick in that 2001 draft.

That's where the Trojans' run ended, and there was certainly disappointment in the moment, but the response as they returned to Southern California put the whole experience in full perspective.

Turner: "I think Duke had Jason Williams at the time, Mike Dunleavy, Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer, so we looked at those guys like, 'Let's go.' We were pretty excited about our chances, and a couple calls unfortunately didn't go our way, I think we kind of got caught up in the emotion of that a little bit. And our depth kind of caught up with us a little bit. Bibby liked to play guys until the bottom of their soles wore out on their shoes. I think a couple guys got tired and ended up going the other direction in the Duke game, but we were excited [to play them]."

Bibby: "I thought we had a chance to beat them. I thought so. We had figured some things out. It didn't work, but was I proud of the guys? Yeah. One game away from the Final Four. One game. A place that 'SC hasn't been."

Turner: "It just so happened things didn't fall for us that game, so it ended up happening like it did, but to be one of the top eight teams in the country, in hindsight it was a great accomplishment. You always want to be the last team standing and win that last game, unfortunately for us that didn't happen, but I think one of the most memorable teams in USC history -- being a part of that group was definitely a special thing."

Bibby: "They were one game away from the Final Four -- that was incredible. We gelled at the right time."

Clancy: "We weren't even aware of the magnitude that we were having at the time until we actually got back to LA and the whole tournament finished. ... This was before 9/11, a few months before 9/11, so we took a redeye flight back from Philly. We get to L.A., we're groggy and tired, we arrive and this is when you could come to the gate. So we get off the plane just to 1,000 screaming fans, and they were right at the gate. That was the biggest thing because we didn't know until that moment what we had did. We were in the east coast for two weeks, so we had no clue what was going on back home. ... From that moment on, everywhere I went I was hearing my name, it was a lot of attention."

Turner: "It was truly amazing and truly an eye-opener. Like I said, we were locked in a bubble. We had no idea the support that we had coming back off that flight. We went to the airport and it was literally a sea of USC, a sea of cardinal and gold in the airport waiting for us. It was just an exciting time. I'm not going to lie, we were down. We got to enjoy Philadelphia a little bit after we lost, but for the most part we were still disappointed because we thought Duke was a game that we could win. So there was a great deal of disappointment there, but when we got back to that airport and saw all those fans and alumni and everybody there showing appreciation for what we did, that definitely had a great impact on us at that time in our life and even currently to this day."

Blu: "One thing I just love to think about was our flight home after we lost to Duke. It was a plane that was full of USC supporters, the band, cheerleaders, the team, all the administration. And it was just so much fun and it was all thanks to the band. I just remember how much fun they were to hang out with."

Trepagnier: "It was huge because it's a football school, so for us to get some notoriety it was awesome. For us to go that deep and just be on the national level and let everybody see how good we were it just helped with recruiting, with the guys coming back, with the coaches. Everybody got a boost off of that."

Farmer: "It's always been a football school and I think that was a lot of motivation as well. When we were making our run the football team was struggling during that time and we wanted to just change the perspective of everybody that our school has got a basketball program as well. I think that kept us on edge in 2001."

Blu: "It was really big for our team. I know it was big for the school, but for us as individuals it was really big because that was what Henry Bibby and [assistant coaches] Dave Miller and Silvey Dominguez, that's what they talked about was our class, our team starting a tradition, something to put USC basketball on the map."

Turner: "Shoutout our managers. If you've ever seen a manager run a suicide [sprint] at a NCAA tournament, it's a sight to behold. Bibby was as hard on our managers as he was on us. Those guys during that tournament time, they were going through it. We had a manager named John and Ryan, and these two kids were about as dedicated as could be. They definitely need a shoutout as well. ... And Bibby would make the managers run suicides. For them to deal with it and have that part of a memory for what they contributed, I'm not sure we really got to say thank you then just because we were young and didn't have that level of maturity, but they were a big part of our success and never got the credit and Bibby put them through hell. Great group of guys."

Bibby: "Coaching at 'SC and getting to the Elite Eight is the most gratifying part of my basketball career, and I've won three NCAA championships [as a player], I've won NBA championships, I've won minor league championships, I've played in the NBA, coached in the NBA, and coaching at 'SC is the top of the line for my career and going to the Elite Eight. It's the best. To put together a group of guys like that and get the support of 'SC fans -- they supported me, they traveled with me, I loved those people -- and 'SC will always be a part of my family."

USC is again a No. 6-seed in the NCAA tournament this year, again exceeding expectations in a similar way two decades later, and now will see if it can make more history Tuesday when it plays unbeaten No. 1 Gonzaga in the Elite Eight.

And the members of that 2001 team will be watching.

"Absolutely, we're talking about it. We're all excited," Trepagnier said.

"I've watched them a couple games against UCLA and stuff like that. I haven't done a lot of watching, but they're good. They're a good basketball team," Bibby said. "They have a lot of ingredients on that team, and if you don't contain Eaddy and the Mobley boys [they've] got a shot to win the game. They're tough."

Said Turner: "We were extremely confident and I see the same level of confidence currently happening with this group -- just the way they play and their trust in each other -- so it's definitely beautiful to watch."

In wrapping up the reflections, they were asked about watching this postseason run and whether they're surprised it's taken this long for the Trojans to return to this stage.

Bibby: "I thought it was a change [around the program after 2001], but we didn't have an arena. We didn't have the things to draw the people, to draw the kids. Dave Miller and I were talking and 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.' And that's the year we fell short (losing as a No. 3 seed to No. 14 UNC Wilmington in the first round in 2002). ... The UCLA's did it every year, the Arizona's do it every year, teams like that, Duke, they do it every year. But not 'SC. It's tough to keep that program where it should be because we didn't have everything we needed. We didn't have that arena to woo the top players in. We were known, we had made some noise, but we weren't solid enough and consistent enough throughout the years for people to want to come to 'SC. We weren't on TV as much as some of the other people. We didn't have the arena. We just didn't have a few things that make a difference. ... It makes [2001] more special."

Clancy: "I would say I am surprised. But honestly it shows how hard it is to really get to that level year in and year out. I think USC, they probably made some mistakes hiring different coaches, but with coach [Andy] Enfield now, he's been around seven or eight years, he's got the best record in the last five years that USC's ever had, so I think with him there he really put the program back on a national stage in getting us back to the prominence where we needed to be."

Blu: "Am I surprised that no USC team has gotten to that point since? Well, you know, the Clippers have always had great teams, but they've never really gone too far either. So some clubs have it tougher than others. We really fought hard and made it. It's hard to have success at that level unless you're completely grounded in what you're doing, and it's challenging sometimes to live in a big city like Los Angeles and really stay focused on basketball and school and trying to just become the best player. I think a lot of times schools give their athletes a lot of nice things and sometimes that can cause payers to not be as hungry. I'm not saying that USC wasn't as hungry as we were as players, but the mentality of players was different in the late 90s. The guys that were on our team, we were kind of hard-nosed players, we were tough kids and I assume maybe USC has had some tough players [since] but in my opinion in general basketball players these days they don't seem as mentally tough as they did when I was a player considering everybody transfers when they don't get the playing time they thought they would get. It was a different mentality. ... We played with a chip on our shoulder with something to prove because we didn't have anything."

Trepagnier: "I am. Because I feel like they had teams good enough to do it and it just didn't happen, but yeah, 20 years they for sure should have been back before then."

Farmer: "I'm definitely surprised because our program has had some good teams since then. It's hard. You've all got to be on the same page."

Clancy: "We're just excited to get back to this stage. It's crazy it's been 20 years. ... It kind of shows you how difficult it is to perform in the tournament on a yearly basis. We're just excited for the run and I'm excited for the program to get back on a national level. And honestly we haven't been bragging too much. I feel we [had to win the Sweet 16 game first] and then I can really kick in the bragging rights."

Finally, in catching up with the stars of that 2001 USC Elite Eight team, we also wanted to update how things have played out for them since.

Henry Bibby -- After the first-round exit in 2002, USC didn't make the NCAA tournament the next two years and Bibby was ultimately fired four games into the 2004-05 season. That said, Bibby looks back fondly on his time at USC and even his relationship with then-athletic director Mike Garrett.

"[After one of the tournament wins in 2001] to see Mike Garrett walk in with a smile on his face was something I'll never forget. I've never seen a guy so happy. He hugged me and he said, 'I'll take care of you. I'll take care of you,'" Bibby recalled. "... I have nothing to say bad about the guy. He fired me, but you know, that's part of this business is getting fired. You don't want to get fired, but it's part of the business. ... He was great for me. He and I fit well together, and he let me run the basketball program, which I was pleased with."

Bibby went on to coach the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks the next year, then had stints as an assistant coach in the NBA with the Philadelphia 76ers, Memphis Grizzlies and Detroit Pistons through the 2013-14 season. He spent last season coaching the Tijuana Zonkeys and says he isn't necessarily done yet -- whether he ends up back in Mexico or elsewhere.

"I coached in Tijuana in the Mexican Basketball League. I've done this my whole life, I was in the minor leagues for years and years," he said. "They have a beautiful arena down there, they seat about 3,500, 4,000 people, the owner bought a brand new arena. There are nine or 10 teams in the league and they play good basketball. They have a lot of Americans that go down and play. They have eight Americans on the team, they have four Mexican players on the team and it's very, very good basketball. I just love coaching. I enjoy coaching and it's in my blood and I want to keep doing it as long as I can. ...

"I'm looking at being a part of maybe the new professional college league that's coming in. I talked to people today about that, they're trying to get that on the way, so that could be a possibility there that I could be a part of that in the way of coaching."

...

Sam Clancy just retired from professional basketball after last season, when the pandemic hit. He had spent the last eight years playing in Argentina after previous experiences in Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Israel, Russia, France, South Korea, Spain and elsewhere. He had been a second-round pick in the 2002 draft by the 76ers, but he missed his first season with a knee injury and was then released, setting him on his international journey.

"I feel like I had a great career. This is like the 20th anniversary and this is my first March Madness not playing on a professional team since I left USC, so it's a been a long run. This is my first time I've ever gotten to sit down and focus on my career. I was always busy running, going to different countries, so I never got the chance to reflect. So now that I'm getting the chance to reflect, I think I played in like 10 different countries on four continents, something like that. I met amazing people from all around the world, I met my amazing wife from Italy and I have experiences that money can't buy just traveling the world," Clancy said. "I'm really happy with my career, really content. It kind of finished soon because of COVID and everything. I wanted to play a little longer, I wanted to steal a few more months, but I'm happy with everything and ready to look forward to the next chapter of my life."

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David Blu (formerly Bluthenthal) also had a long international career playing in Russia, Italy, France and predominantly Israel through the end of the 2013-14 season. He was a two-time EuroLeague champion, five-time Israeli Super League champion and the 2011 Israeli Basketball Premier League finals MVP. He's now a stay-at-home dad to two children aged 12 and 9 years old, and also operates in holistic health and wellness with a few clients.

"Going to the NBA was my dream since I was a kid and it didn't happen, but looking back, the first year was challenging being on the road living overseas, looking at the guys in the NBA and thinking I should be there. The second year I started to enjoy the environment, started to tour the different places I was visiting, third year, fourth year and so on kind of got used to it and gave up that idea that I've got to get to the NBA and really started to enjoy my time overseas," Blu said. "And now looking back, it's like, damn, I had a great career. I won a couple European championships, a bunch of domestic championships, I traveled the world, I've seen so many different places and had so many different experiences. Personally, I had a great career. There's guys that go to the NBA who play 10 years in the NBA who play a few minutes a game and that's their whole career, and my career was 25 minutes a game, hitting game-winning shots, playing in front of 20,000 people and being the MVP. So while it wasn't in the NBA, the dream of being a big-time professional basketball player, earning accolades and championships, that all came true."

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Desmon Farmer went undrafted in 2004 but later had short stints with the NBA's Seattle Supersonics and San Antonio Spurs as well as the NBA's then-called G League, while also playing internationally until 2015 with stops in Greece, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Spain, Venezuela, Kosovo, Colombia, Argentina, the Dominican Republic and Croatia.

"Having kids and always being gone, being away from your kids, it makes you think about doing things different," he said. "I had an AAU program for eight years during my process of playing so I always knew once I got done I was going to get into coaching. I just had to figure out how I was going to go about it and Andy [Enfield] gave me an opportunity and I took advantage of it."

Farmer is back at USC as a graduate assistant coach after completing his undergraduate degree.

"I had to finish my degree first, I ended up doing that, and then I reached out to the coach to see if there was a coaching position available for me. There wasn't one at the time, but he offered the grad assistant position to me and I took advantage of it," he said.

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Brian Scalabrine was a second-round NBA draft pick in 2002 and spent 11 seasons in the league with the New Jersey Nets, Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls through the 2011-12 season, mostly as a bench player while averaging 3.1 points per game for his career and winning an NBA title in 2008 with the Celtics. Since 2014, he has been a TV analyst for the Celtics.

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Brandon Granville later went to law school and is now a practicing lawyer in the Los Angeles area.

"He's doing well for himself," Turner said.

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Jeff Trepagnier was a second-round pick of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2001 draft and spent a combined three NBA seasons between the Cavs and Denver Nuggets before playing overseas and in domestic minor leagues through 2013. He is now the director of the Compton Magic AAU basketball program.

"Just being around talented guys with our AAU program Compton Magic, it was easy to transition to that," he said. "The competitor that I am I was never satisfied [in my career]. Overall, I felt like it was a good career but it could have been a lot better."

With the Compton Magic, he's worked with several future Trojans in Onyeka Okongwu, Isaiah Mobley, Evan Mobley and Reese Waters.

"We have a nice little pipeline there," Trepagnier said.

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Jarvis Turner is also back at USC now, as a professor. He has also spent the last 11 years as the head basketball coach at Beverly Hills High School.

"After 'SC I just couldn't really stay healthy so I got into education and I started teaching and coaching and I've been doing that pretty much ever since. It's been a great run for me. I'm actually back at 'SC teaching, I'm a professor there, and I coach at Beverly Hills High School, so I'm still involved with the game," he said. "... I think we have seven league titles and a CIF championship. So we've had a little success at Beverly as well. I've got a little bit of Henry Bibby in me -- not much, but I got the good part."