Soon after USC's NCAA tournament draw was revealed Sunday, veteran center Chevez Goodwin got a text from a friend back home in South Carolina.

"He was like, 'It was written. It was destined for you to come back,'" Goodwin shared earlier this week.

While much of the USC basketball team was surely looking up exactly where Greenville, S.C., is, Goodwin had hoped for this outcome once he saw the potential NCAA tournament sites.

The sixth-year senior is from Columbia, S.C., less than two hours from Bon Secours Wellness Arena, where the No. 7-seeded Trojans will open tournament play against No. 10 Miami on Friday (12:10 p.m. PT on truTV).

Moreover, though, he spent three years at Wofford College, in neighboring Spartanburg, after starting his collegiate basketball career at the College of Charleston.

"It means a lot. It gives me a chance to go back home and play in front of family and friends and prove to everyone that I went out to the West Coast and this is what it's like to play with a West Coast team. So it's super big," Goodwin said. "I'm super excited to go out there and just be back home, get Bojangles and Zaxby's and Cook Out, Publix, my gosh ... I might just be out getting food the entire time."

RELATED: USC readies for NCAA tournament opener vs. Miami | Watch the Trojans' NCAA tournament press conference from Greenville, S.C.

After the brackets were revealed Sunday, USC coach Andy Enfield joked of Goodwin, "He came 3,000 miles away to come here to school, and we told his family we'd schedule a game in South Carolina and we finally did."

While Enfield was talking with reporters Sunday about the tournament draw, Goodwin was fielding calls and texts from friends and family back home.

He said he was hoping to come up with at least 15 tickets, borrowing from his teammates' allotment of complimentary seats for the game.

"My phone was ringing off the hook as soon as they said we were playing in Greenville. A lot of messages, a lot of asking for tickets trying to see me play. ... My phone wouldn't stop ringing, my Apple watch wouldn't stop buzzing. I was just like, 'Yo, this is crazy,'" Goodwin said. "But I was super excited to see we got to go to Greenville."

After growing up and spending his first four years of college in the state of South Carolina, Goodwin has settled in nicely in Los Angeles.

He's been USC's most improved player this season, going from a limited bench role last year (14.9 minutes per game) to starting all 33 games while averaging 11.0 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

Goodwin's numbers have tailed off a bit over the second half of the season, but he remains a pivotal contributor to the Trojans' success.

"He's one of the most improved players in our league," Enfield said. "He's a high-energy guy that is hard to guard and hard to play against because he's nonstop with his energy, his toughness and his physicality. He's become a go-to guy in the low post."

"His experience, just being around college basketball for as long as he has is important to us, and he's one of the roots of our team," forward Isaiah Mobley said. "We can't do what we've accomplished already and what we want to accomplish ahead without him."

Guard Drew Peterson added that Goodwin is "one of the most passionate players I've ever played with."

It's probably not a coincidence that Goodwin's best game of the season came on Feb. 17 vs. Washington, as his father Charles had traveled out to Los Angeles to watch him play. Goodwin had a season-high 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting with 9 rebounds that night.

The Trojans can only hope the family effect inspires the best out of him again this week.

Enfield reflected this week on Goodwin's decision to transfer from Wofford to USC, when the Trojans badly needed frontcourt depth, calling it "a leap of faith on his part, his family's part, because he was going away from home."

After last season, Enfield then helped talk Goodwin into returning for one more year.

Both those decisions have paid off well for the sixth-year senior, who has certainly boosted his chances to play professionally after proving himself at the Pac-12 level.

As for his own reflections on that cross-country move and how it's impacted him, Goodwin noted that he now hopes to find a way to stay in Los Angeles after college, rather than moving back home.

But he'll always feel a strong attachment to his home state.

"Being in L.A. has been great. It's changed me a lot, but I still feel like a South Carolina kid through and through the entire time," he said. "When I go back home I can't wait to feel the humidity, I can't wait to see the palm trees, see the deer run across the street in the middle of the night, the unpredictable weather."

Like his friend said, it seems all too fitting for his basketball journey to now come full circle back in South Carolina.

Goodwin made clear, though, that as poetic as it may be, he hopes this isn't the final chapter of his college basketball career just yet.

"Hopefully, we get these two wins and move on to the next site. I don't want it to end here," he said.