Two tournaments, the same result.

The USC Trojans are preparing for the start of their season on the heels of back-to-back first-round exits in the NCAA tournament. But this team already has a different feel to it than those two teams who suffered crushing losses to Miami and Michigan State, respectively.

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This year, USC’s backcourt is highlighted by freshman guard Isaiah Collier, the consensus No. 1 recruit in the class of 2023, and fifth-year guard Boogie Ellis, who led the Trojans in scoring last season with 17.7 points per game. Given the nearly four-year age gap between the guards, the duo will likely play different games, with Ellis coming in with years of college experience and Collier fresh out of high school.

For Ellis, that experience has seen the highs and lows of USC basketball, including those losses to Michigan State and Miami.

“Every loss for me is a lesson, so I definitely took a lesson from that and I’m a vet now so I’m ready to go,” Ellis said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “I have a lot of experience for what winning looks like.”

Collier, on the other hand, will have to deal with the hype of being the highest-ranked recruit in USC basketball history while also adapting to the college game.

“Once that ball is tipped, it doesn’t matter what hype there is because you have to go play and you have to compete at the highest level,” said Head Coach Andy Enfield. “I think off the court they’ve done a good job with it. But hype doesn’t help you win basketball games.”

Lucky for Collier and the Trojans, they are coming into this year with some game experience as a team to get them ready for their first regular season matchup. Over the summer, members of the team took an international trip to Europe, where USC got to play three games against two different professional teams.

“The games in Greece helped and the two scrimmages that we played in,” Collier said. “So it feels like we all prepared. I mean, I know what to expect. I’m sure everyone else knows what to expect because they’ve played college basketball before.”

But beyond the game experience in Greece, the trip also provided the team an opportunity to get to know each other, which was especially important given six of the 14 members on the roster are new to the team.

“It helped a lot,” Collier said. “As far as just hanging out, just off the court really. I feel like that came a long way just being in Greece. The bond was built over there to me.”

And although off-court camaraderie might not seem vital for a team, Enfield has already noticed a difference when the Trojans are playing basketball.

“I think it is important to have a relationship off the court,” Enfield said. “Everybody doesn’t have to be best friends off the court, but I think they all have mutual respect for each other for who they are as people away from the basketball arena or the court. And I think it really shows.”

As the Trojans were building chemistry in Europe both on and off the court, USC also tinkered with lineups across the three games. In the last game of the trip, Enfield employed a starting lineup featuring two guards and three forwards. The team did not have the luxury of playing three forwards very often last season, with only five forwards on the roster, three of them being freshmen.

The lack of size hurt the Trojans against larger teams like Arizona, a squad that was 2-0 against USC last season. USC now has seven forwards listed on the roster — exactly half of the 14-member squad — as it should fare better against larger teams this season.

A large piece of that will be sophomore forward Vincent Iwuchukwu once he fully returns to basketball shape after an injury. Iwuchukwu was once ranked as the 28th best player across the country in the 2022 recruiting class, according to 24/7 Sports.

“He’s working on his skills. He’s working on his physicality, and he’s always been very fast,” Enfield said. “I think he’s one player in particular that will improve dramatically as the season goes on.”

The Trojans will need to handle the hype of having one of the more talented rosters in the country on some of the largest stages in the country. USC currently has five teams on its schedule that competed in the NCAA Tournament in March, with three of those schools advancing to the Sweet 16.

USC opens up its season with one of those schools, Kansas State, on Nov. 6. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Darren Parry contributed to this report.