Tag: USC trojans women’s basketball

JuJu Watkins gets little help in USC women’s basketball loss at Utah

USC’s Rayah Marshall played only 16 minutes against Utah. The Trojans need her at full strength.

The USC Trojans women’s basketball team lost on the road against Utah, 78-58, on Friday night. After defeating UCLA and moving up the rankings, the Trojans took a step back in Salt Lake City.

Alissa Pili was a force to reckon with for Utah. She had 37 points and was as good as she has ever been as a college basketball star. Pili scored 37 against South Carolina earlier this season. Against the Trojans, she matched that total. She was on fire, making 13 of 16 shots and 5 of 6 3-pointers in a brilliant display. She was the best player on the court.

USC’s JuJu Watkins was the second-best player on the floor in this game. She continued to put up strong numbers. She led USC again, this time scoring 26 points on 11-22 shooting with five rebounds and three steals.

The only other USC player in double figures was McKenzie Forbes, who scored 11 points but was just 3 of 13 from the field.

As has been the case for the majority of the season, it was the JuJu Watkins show on the USC side of things. She was the star against UCLA, scoring 32 points with 10 rebounds, and had cramps by the end of it all. She needed more help in this game.

She didn’t get it. One limitation for USC was that Rayah Marshall — who was ill against UCLA and did not play this past Sunday — played only 16 minutes. USC needs a full-strength Marshall to compete against the elite teams in a loaded Pac-12.

Despite the loss to Utah on Friday, Watkins was the engine that kept this USC train moving. The Trojans will need another huge game from JuJu against No. 3 Colorado on Sunday afternoon in Boulder.

Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire.

Social media reaction to USC, JuJu Watkins giving No. 2 UCLA its first loss of 2024

USC diehards realize they have an elite WBB team. Check out how fired up Trojan fans were after this huge victory:

The USC Trojans women’s basketball team defeated UCLA on Sunday in a jam-packed Galen Center. Lindsay Gottlieb finally got a win over the Bruins, and to make things better, it was UCLA’s first loss of the season.

JuJu Watkins was a superstar. Rayah Marshall missed the game, and yet the Trojans found a way to win.

They will more than likely move up in the rankings this upcoming week, as they should. They look more and more like a top-eight team in the country. That’s a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament if they remain on track.

After the game, fans were loving every second of it and enjoyed the victory.

Here’s how social media reacted to the big moment for the Women of Troy:

5 takeaways from USC women’s basketball’s gigantic win over UCLA

USC delivered a masterful defensive performance without one of its best defensive players.

The USC Trojans women’s basketball team had the Galen Center jam-packed for a top-10 showdown with the undefeated UCLA Bruins on Sunday. By the end of it, Lindsay Gottlieb’s team walked away with the 73-65 victory, handing UCLA its first loss of the season. 

Even with the Trojans a bit shorthanded, they found a way to win. JuJu Watkins once again looked like one of the best players in the sport.

The Trojans now move to 13-1 and should surely move up the seed list for the NCAA Tournament. USC solidified itself as a legitimate top-10 team which will get a high seed in March. There is a lot to like from this game. Here are five takeaways from the Trojans’ huge victory:

Lindsay Gottlieb hypes up the Galen Center crowd after USC defeats UCLA

Lindsay Gottlieb is making USC fans aware of how much is changing in Los Angeles.

The USC Trojans women’s basketball team has been the opposite of the disappointing men’s basketball program. On Sunday, the Galen Center was full of fans who were on hand to watch UCLA and USC play each other.

This time, the packed house wasn’t because of the men’s team. The women’s programs took center stage, facing off in a top-10 showdown.

By the end of it, the Trojans got the victory and gave UCLA its first loss of the year. 

After the game ended, USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb grabbed the mic and delivered a powerful message to the fans in attendance. What was an irrelevant, obscure, and unsuccessful program a few short years ago is now on the national radar screen. The Trojans are the talk of Los Angeles after their 73-65 win over UCLA on Sunday.

There was an attendance record set for the game, and fans were lining up outside of the Galen Center hours prior to this massive showdown.

Gottlieb and USC have done it: They defeated UCLA and are one loss behind Colorado in the Pac-12 Conference.

Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire.

LeBron James watched JuJu Watkins play for USC, and he sees something special

LeBron James has watched JuJu Watkins play in the Galen Center from a courtside seat. He knows what he sees.

The praise for the USC Trojans women’s basketball team has been effusive and appropriate this season. A 12-1 team with a chance to be really good is earning high marks, and this is with the nation’s No. 1-ranked recruiting class coming in before next season. A strong and durable program is being built in Los Angeles thanks to Rayah Marshall and other role players on the current squad, but we all know who the centerpiece of this revival truly is: JuJu Watkins. Her excellence and unselfishness have made her a great teammate and a genuine star on a nationwide level.

Watkins has been playing like the second-best player in the sport behind Iowa’s Caitlin Clark. She is, in fact, the second-leadining scorer in the country behind Clark. She is only a freshman. With Watkins balling on the court, Lindsay Gottlieb’s USC team is hoping to make serious noise as the Women of Troy aim to win the Pac-12 Conference and, at the very least, get a high seed in the 2024 Women’s NCAA Tournament.

One star who has taken notice of Watkins is Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James, who said this via the Los Angeles Times:

“She’s the next greatest thing in women’s basketball.”

It’s hard to argue with LeBron. Watkins really does seem to be in position to take the baton from Caitlin Clark as the next big thing in women’s college basketball. She’s going to be at USC for the next few years. She will have that elite recruiting class next season. It’s all lining up for her.

LeBron James isn’t speaking without having watched Watkins play, either. LeBron was in the Galen Center on December 10. He watched the first half of the women’s game against UC Riverside that afternoon afteer his son, Bronny James, made his USC debut on that afternoon versus Long Beach State.

Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire.

Paul George, an elite two-way basketball player, sees JuJu Watkins as one of the best in the women’s game

Paul George is highly skilled at both ends of the floor, and he sees the complete excellence of JuJu Watkins.

The praise for USC Trojans women’s basketball star JuJu Watkins just is not ending, and for good reason. The freshman phenom has taken the game by storm, especially in the Los Angeles area.

Los Angeles Clipper star James Harden recently raved about Watkins. Clipper teammate Paul George also had some hugely positive words to say about Watkins to the Los Angeles Times, via USC Athletics:

“You name the top female college fits, she should get that same recognition for what she’s doing, and honestly true freshman, she’s killing it.”

Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark are a couple of the household names in the sport, but Watkins should be up there with them, per George’s comments.

It’s big praise from one of the top two-way players in the NBA. Watkins has been making her name known and leading the Trojans in the process. The Women of Troy are 12-1 overall, 2-1 in Pac-12 Conference play. They are aiming to make a deep run in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire.

WNBA star Jewell Loyd is subtle but profound in her praise of JuJu Watkins

Jewell Loyd knows ball, and she is highly impressed by JuJu Watkins.

We often refer in the sports industry to the vague but real “it” factor. It’s not an exact scientific thing, but it’s one of those “you know it when you see it” elements of greatness. It doesn’t show up in statistics or physical measurements. It’s an awareness that an athlete has special competitive or instinctual qualities other athletes simply lack.

Others might call it a “sixth sense.” Some might call it a born or natural feel for the game. Whatever you want to call it, it’s powerful, and great athletes see this when they meet other athletes.

Consider WNBA star Jewell Loyd. She met USC’s JuJu Watkins. She came away with a very clear observation, though also a subtle one. The main point: She saw something special in Watkins, marking the USC freshman as not just another star player. There’s a little something extra with JuJu.

The “it” factor.

Via the Los Angeles Times, Loyd said this about Watkins:

“Meeting her, you instantly get this focus, this drive, this quiet curiosity that she has about the game.”

That statement by Loyd points to something deeper that can’t easily be named, but which exists. It’s there, it is felt, it is perceived. It’s real. It matters.

This is JuJu Watkins, who is only just beginning to build something at USC.

Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire.

USC basketball legend Cynthia Cooper makes an essential observation about JuJu Watkins

Cynthia Cooper, a part of USC’s first great women’s basketball dynasty, admires how JuJu Watkins works with teammates.

Cynthia Cooper is USC basketball royalty. She was a teammate of Cheryl Miller on the Trojans’ dynastic teams of the mid-1980s which brought multiple national championships to the school. USC was the first dynastic program of the NCAA Tournament era in women’s college basketball. The first Women’s NCAA Tournament and Final Four were held in 1982. USC was the first school to win multiple NCAA Tournaments. Cooper helped make that happen.

Three decades later, after her legendary playing career — complete with a star turn in the WNBA — had ended, Cooper coached the Trojans for a few seasons in the mid-2010s. The history of USC women’s basketball is deeply intertwined with the journey of Cynthia Cooper as a women’s hoops pioneer.

When she speaks, it’s worth listening and taking notes.

Via the Los Angeles Times, Cooper had this to say about USC’s current women’s basketball superstar, JuJu Watkins:

“The impact that Cheryl made on USC and the impact that JuJu is making at USC currently, their journeys are really the same, on parallel. I think JuJu has an ability to make players around her better. That’s why USC is better.”

JuJu Watkins the hooper is an amazing player, but JuJu Watkins the teammate — making a positive impact on the other four players on the floor — is the central reason why she is such a difference-maker at USC.

Cynthia Cooper would know.

Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire.

James Harden is impressed not only by JuJu Watkins’ game, but her work ethic

James Harden offered very lofty praise for JuJu Watkins.

James Harden is paying attention to JuJu Watkins. That’s how much of an impression USC’s women’s basketball superstar has made on the basketball world, including the NBA community.

Harden recently had this to say about Watkins to the Los Angeles Times, via USC Athletics:

“She can become one of the best women’s basketball players to ever touch a basketball. That’s how good she is. That’s how hard she works.”

It’s striking that a player with James Harden’s level of achievement and status in basketball would be struck not only by Watkins’ quality, but her work ethic and overall habits. That’s a very specific observation by Harden, one which points to the kind of teammate Watkins is at USC. She isn’t just a standalone talent; she puts in the work and makes her teammates better.

Harden’s compliment is also noteworthy because Harden is one of the great scorers in basketball history. His style might not be aesthetically pleasing, but no one can deny how effective Harden has been at getting to the foul line and creating points in all sorts of ways. Watkins being able to do the same will help USC enormously in a cutthroat Pac-12 Conference.

Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire.

National reaction pours in after USC loses to UCLA in a game which met the hype

Observers were highly impressed by the display from USC and UCLA in Pauley Pavilion on Saturday night.

UCLA 71, USC 64. The battle between the Bruins and Trojans was a matchup of unbeatens. Both teams were ranked in the top five of the USA TODAY Sports Women’s College Basketball Poll.

It was a supreme showcase for women’s basketball, particularly in the Pac-12 and especially in the Los Angeles market. There was no bigger women’s basketball game played anywhere in the country on Saturday, though the Utah-Colorado Pac-12 game came close. This game, however, was bigger, since the two teams had a combined 21-0 record.

UCLA won, and the Bruins were clearly the better team. However, USC made UCLA work very hard for the win. The Bruins had to make some very impressive and special plays to reach the finish line. It was an imperfect game, but a game worthy of the hype.

Here’s a sampling of the national reaction: