Tag: USC women’s basketball

High stakes, high emotions, high profile: USC women’s basketball prepares for Colorado clash

This is a big-time women’s college basketball game: No. 7 USC versus No. 11 Colorado with a lot on the line.

This is the kind of game college basketball players dream of playing. It’s No. 7 USC versus No. 11 Colorado in the latest of many Pac-12 games to feature two top-15 women’s basketball teams. The Friday night showdown in the Galen Center carries very big stakes and should be one of the fiercest games USC fans will see all season long.

USC will not host Pac-12-leading Stanford this season. The only game against the Cardinal came in Palo Alto. USC already did host Oregon State, but that game was played before the Beavers made their ascent in the Pac-12 and in the national rankings. The UCLA game is the one home game which had as much or more buzz than this game does. USC-Colorado is a big-time game loaded with all sorts of storylines. Let’s offer you a sense of how large this game is and what USC needs to do to win it:

USC women’s basketball is a No. 2 seed in latest ESPN NCAA Tournament bracketology

It is widely agreed that #USC is currently a No. 2 seed for the 2024 Women’s NCAA Tournament.

The USC women’s basketball team is enjoying a terrific season. The Trojans significantly improved their standing in the national picture by beating Oregon State on Sunday. The Trojans completed a season sweep of the two-game series against the Beavers. The win has the Trojans as a projected No. 2 seed in ESPN’s latest NCAA Tournament bracketology. The Trojans are a consensus No. 2 seed in bracket projections right now, vaulting up from a No. 3 seed last week.

Obviously, if a team is a projected No. 2 seed in late February, it has a chance to become a No. 1 seed. That isn’t necessarily likely for the Trojans, but it’s certainly a possibility. USC just has to move up one more seed line, and the Trojans could be at the top of the bracket.

USC is in excellent position to host NCAA Tournament games at the Galen Center for the first time in school history. As long as USC gets a top-four seed, the Trojans will host opening-round games in late March (March 22 and 24 or 23 and 25).

See below for more information on NCAA Tournament ESPN bracketology, from bracketologist Charlie Creme. Get a look at the projected No. 1 seeds, No. 2 seeds, and No. 3 seeds USC is battling for prime position in the 2024 Women’s NCAA Tournament bracket:

JuJu Watkins hasn’t figured everything out yet at USC … because she’s a freshman

JuJu Watkins is great. JuJu Watkins is inefficient. JuJu is elite. JuJu is incomplete. All of these things can be true.

JuJu Watkins of USC hit just 6 of 32 shots on Sunday at Oregon State. She had a tough game at the offensive end of the floor, even tougher than her 8-of-27 game against Washington. Some people will look at that performance from Watkins and call her overrated. What they will miss is that JuJu still played elite defense and helped USC limit Oregon State to just 50 points in a huge win which has the Trojans in second place in the cutthroat Pac-12 Conference.

Obviously, however, people like talking about offense more than defense. Sports fans are naturally drawn to scoring points more than doing no-glory gruntwork. JuJu’s defense is elite and is a huge part of why she is such a great player, but let’s have the more difficult conversation about JuJu’s offense and why it is a work in progress.

There is a lot to unpack here, so let’s begin:

USC women’s basketball could be a No. 1 seed in 2024 NCAA Tournament

It’s not likely, but it’s possible, and we’ll tell you how it can happen.

The USC women’s basketball team scored a huge win at Oregon State on Sunday. The win likely makes USC a projected No. 2 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, given everything we have seen over the past few days of play in the Pac-12 and elsewhere. If a team is a projected No. 2 seed for March Madness on February 18, that means as No. 1 seed is in play. Obviously, there’s a difference between “in play” and “very likely,” but the basic point is that this is certainly possible.

We’ll take you through some scenarios and give you a sense of what needs to happen in the next month before Selection Sunday, in order for USC to get a No. 1 seed and maximize its chances of reaching the 2024 NCAA Women’s Final Four.

Here we go:

USC women’s basketball plays elite defense, grabs giant road win at Oregon State

The Trojans are 20-4 and are tied for second in the cutthroat Pac-12. You have a great team at USC, folks.

This was a big game for USC women’s basketball. Not only did the Trojans have a chance to beat top-15 opponent Oregon State on the road; they learned before tipoff that Oregon State star post player Raegan Beers would not play due to an injury. Oregon State probably deserved to be favored with a fully intact lineup, but Beers — who has given USC all sorts of problems with her defense and rebounding — needed to be on the floor for Oregon State to maintain an edge. Without her, USC had an opening to do something. Could the Trojans take advantage? Yes.

There’s a lot to unpack from Sunday’s 58-50 USC win in Corvallis. Let’s go through the details of the game and its significance:

JuJu Watkins outscores entire Oregon team in the first half of blowout win for USC

JuJu Watkins delivered another 30-point game for USC. The Trojans led by 22 after one quarter and cruised on Friday.

The JuJu Watkins story keeps getting better at USC. Watkins scored 33 points on Friday night in Eugene, leading USC to an 88-51 thrashing of the Oregon Ducks. USC’s starters were able to leave the game well before the final buzzer, giving the Trojans valuable rest before Sunday’s big game at Oregon State, a matchup of two top-15 teams.

Watkins has produced 10 games with 30 or more points, tying the iconic Cheryl Miller for the most such games in one season of women’s college basketball at USC. Watkins buried a long shot from the midcourt logo before halftime to give USC a 57-21 lead at the break. Watkins scored 24 points in the first half, three more than the entire Oregon team.

USC used a 19-0 run to grab a 29-7 lead after one quarter. The Trojans were never seriously threatened in this contest. They made short work of an inferior opponent and took another step toward their goal of getting a top-four seed in March Madness and hosting 2024 NCAA Tournament games on the opening weekend of the event at the Galen Center.

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USC women’s basketball 2024 commit Kennedy Smith is at the head of her class

One of USC’s star incoming recruits received a prestigious honor.

Kennedy Smith is a five-star recruit and the No. 6 overall prospect in the HoopGurlz/EspnW rankings. The 6-foot-1 Etiwanda (California) forward led the Eagles to an Open Division state championship last season and looks to repeat this season.

The USC commit was recently named as a Naismith Player of the Year semifinalist.

We wrote about Smith months ago when she committed to USC:

“Smith chose USC over the other schools in her top five which included UCLA, South Carolina, Duke and Louisville. She hails from Etiwanda High School in Southern California, where she has helped lead the team to the California 2023 state championship. A versatile wing player who can handle the ball, shoot from outside and play in the post, Smith with strengthen the Trojans in many ways.

“Kennedy Smith is viewed by some as the best two-way player in the 2024 high school recruiting class. The 6-1 wing is also among the most dynamic players in the 2024 cycle. She can do almost anything on the basketball court, so the five-star prospect was an obvious target for coach Lindsay Gottlieb and her staff, especially with her ability to play multiple positions.”

USC has the No. 1-ranked recruiting class for 2024.

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USC and UCLA battle for one big goal as March Madness gets closer

USC and UCLA are tied in the standings. The team which can gain the upper hand will get a specific reward in March.

The USC women’s basketball team defeated Arizona State on Friday night, as you probably know by now. Elsewhere in the Pac-12, the outlook improved for the Trojans in their attempt to secure one of several goals for the remainder of the Pac-12 regular season. One such goal relates to UCLA.

Friday night in the Pac-12 provided a number of noteworthy results. Stanford and Colorado won to remain tied for first place. UCLA held off Arizona. Cal defeated injury-hampered Washington State.

The other especially big result in the conference was Oregon State going into Salt Lake City and beating Utah. That result shook up the top half of the 12-team conference. Let’s take a brief look at the top six of the Pac-12 in women’s basketball, going from the sixth-place team to the first-place team:

USC women’s basketball gets the low-stress win it needed vs Arizona State

USC got what it wanted out of the Arizona State game. A tougher test awaits vs Arizona on Monday night.

The USC Trojans needed a low-stress basketball game on Friday against Arizona State. Facing the last-place team in the Pac-12, the Trojans were playing the one opponent any high-end team should be able to demolish without too much trouble.

It is a fact of life and sports that not every day will be met with the same intensity. Coaches can (and should) try to preach about consistency and good habits, but it’s still a simple reality that top-end games and lower-tier games won’t generate the same level of enthusiasm. Coaches do understand that there are times during a long season when athletes will conserve energy and need to be paced instead of being run into the ground. You did see USC’s Lindsay Gottlieb run a lot of players in and out of the lineup versus ASU on Friday, an acknowledgment that this team did need to step off the gas pedal. The Trojans were playing an opponent against which they could afford to breathe a little.

Let’s go inside the central details of this 81-63 win, as the Trojans moved to 17-4 on the season and stayed on track to reach the central goal of hosting NCAA Tournament games at the Galen Center:

The legend of JuJu Watkins continues to grow at USC (again, and not for the last time)

She is playing like a superstar, but JuJu Watkins is creating the kinds of moments people never forget. It’s special.

Being a legend is not just about scoring a lot of points. Plenty of basketball players have scored copious quantities of points but have not become superstars. The formula for true greatness — on a scale which is larger than life, and which is remembered by generations of sports fans — transcends the box score and the stat sheet.

Greatness is about responding to adversity. Greatness is about lifting a team. Greatness is about paying the price for success and then attaining that success. Greatness is about forging a connection with fans and a community in ways which create a strong, unbreakable bond that becomes ingrained in the public memory.

JuJu Watkins scored 51 points against Stanford on Friday night. The display was hugely impressive in itself, on its own terms, but it’s the surrounding context which makes the moment legendary, as Luca Evans of the Orange County Register notes in his most recent piece on JuJu.

We’re going to share some great quotes from that article and offer some other visual snapshots of JuJu Watkins, an athlete who is quickly becoming a special USC Trojan with a level of resonance which is beginning to reach considerable proportions: