Tag: Kaitlyn Davis

USC’s Kaitlyn Davis selected by New York Liberty in 2024 WNBA draft

Kaitlyn Davis played college ball in New York before coming to USC. She’ll feel right at home with the Liberty.

The USC Trojans were able to get two WNBA draft selections this year. There are only 36 draft picks. McKenzie Forbes managed to become a top-30 pick, going to the Los Angeles Sparks at No. 28. Kaitlyn Davis, a teammate of Forbes this past season with USC women’s basketball, went at pick No. 35 to the New York Liberty.

The neat part of this story is that while Forbes stays in Los Angeles, Davis goes back to New York, where she played at Columbia University before transferring to USC. Davis should feel right at home with the Liberty, where she can become a role player on a talented roster. Davis is a willing rebounder and defender. She loves doing the kinds of things which don’t show up in a box score. Davis’s hard work and high basketball IQ helped JuJu Watkins, Forbes, and the rest of the Trojans go to the Elite Eight this past season. Davis got key rebounds late in victories over Arizona and then against UCLA in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals. Those rebounds set up huge 3-point baskets which rescued the Trojans helped them get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Everyone got to see how valuable Davis was to the Women of Troy. Now we’ll see if those same winning qualities can boost the Liberty in the WNBA. We wish Kaitlyn Davis the very best in the pro game.

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Rayah Marshall and Kaitlyn Davis are playing their best for USC women’s basketball

Rayah Marshall and Kaitlyn Davis are hitting their stride for USC as March arrives. Good timing.

For most of the season, USC women’s basketball has been carried by its starting backcourt of JuJu Watkins, McKenzie Forbes, and Kayla Padilla. While those three players all played important roles in helping USC beat Arizona on Thursday in Tucson, the frontcourt tandem of Rayah Marshall and Kaitlyn Davis carried most of the workload for the Trojans.

Marshall and Davis both posted season-high point totals to pick up the slack on a night when their backcourt teammates weren’t shooting well from 3-point range. It’s true that USC tied this game late in regulation on a 3-pointer, and then broke a tie in the second overtime with a 3-pointer, but it was the gruntwork of Davis and Marshall which put USC in position to make those key shots.

Let’s go into greater detail about Marshall and Davis, the frontcourt which is stepping up at just the right time this season:

Kaitlyn Davis, slowed down by injuries, gives USC huge lift in victory at Cal

Kaitlyn Davis gave USC a huge performance. If this is the player the Trojans get in March, watch out.

The USC Trojans have a chance to be great in women’s basketball because of JuJu Watkins, but in order for all the pieces of the puzzle to fully come together, USC needs big contributions from its role players. One such role player missed several games earlier in the season, particularly in December, due to an injury. Kaitlyn Davis was slowy eased back into the rotation. Lindsay Gottlieb did not overload her with minutes. As with Rayah Marshall, who was sick a few weeks ago, health has been an obstacle for Davis this season.

Sunday at Cal, she looked a lot more like the player who helped USC roar out of the gate in November. Davis posted 10 points and 8 rebounds against the Golden Bears. USC would not have beaten Cal without those contributions from an important frontcourt player.

Davis notably fouled out in the Stanford game on Friday. USC survived that episode and was able to benefit from Davis having relatively fresh legs on Sunday in Berkeley, two days later. Davis and frontcourt teammate Rayah Marshall were active on defense and on the glass. USC gave up a lot of 3-pointers to Cal in this game (10) but established territorial superiority near the rim, winning the rebounding battle 35-32.

If Kaitlyn Davis is back, and if she can consistently replicate the kind of performance she offered against Cal, USC’s ceiling will rise considerably in March.

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