A Hero of March Madness

The USC Trojans are a darling of the 2017 NCAA Tournament.

Regular readers of our college admissions blog know that we write about March Madness because how deep a team advances in the NCAA Tournament can have a major impact on the university’s application numbers the subsequent admissions cycle. So to all you Northwestern fans, you bet we anticipate a surge in applications to the Evanston, Illinois-based university next year. But regular readers of our blog also know that we have a March Madness favorite, a young man we’ve been rooting on — along with his USC Trojan teammates — for some time. And yesterday was his shining moment.

Last year, we were in attendance in North Carolina when the USC Trojans fell to Providence at the buzzer in the opening round of March Madness. This year, USC again faced Providence — this time in one of the First Four play-in games. After falling behind by 17 points in the second half, USC charged back and revenged their 2016 NCAA Tournament defeat. Yesterday, in the round of 64 against the better-ranked Southern Methodist University, USC again found themselves behind by double digits in the second half, but Elijah Stewart and his USC teammates would not go gently into that good night. They would rally back — led by Elijah’s 22 points and game-winning 3-pointer that will go down as one of the most important shots in the history of the University of Southern California’s basketball program.

Of all of yesterday’s college basketball action, the pundits have dubbed USC’s win the biggest upset. But we’ll be rooting for the Trojans to stage another stunning upset tomorrow, against Baylor. Let’s go Trojans. Let’s go Elijah. Fight on!