INDIANAPOLIS — Timea Gardiner buried a nook three-pointer inside a highschool gymnasium right here Thursday afternoon, commencing an nearly each day custom for the UCLA girls’s basketball group.
Clap-clap-clap, clap-clap-clap.
Coach Cori Shut’s gesture signaled it was the tip of apply, gamers shortly following her lead.
Clap-clap-clap, clap-clap-clap.
Everybody gathered in a circle, ft touching in a present of unity. Anybody who needed to say one thing concerning the apply may communicate. Gardiner mentioned she felt the group was locked in. Different coaches and gamers shared equally constructive messages.
It was a well-recognized routine in unfamiliar territory, the Bruins becoming a member of rival USC among the many newcomers of their first Huge Ten girls’s basketball match.
After dominating their new convention counterparts through the common season, the top-seeded Trojans and second-seeded Bruins are extensively anticipated to fulfill once more within the match championship Sunday afternoon at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Ought to the anticipated title matchup materialize, the Bruins can keep away from going uh-oh-and-3 in opposition to the Trojans after dropping the primary two video games, together with an 80-67 setback Sunday at Pauley Pavilion.
“The silver lining,” Shut mentioned of the most recent defeat, “is that there has been an unbelievable response from our player leadership.”
Shut mentioned level guard Kiki Rice and ahead Gabriela Jaquez convened a players-only movie session Monday morning that was universally described as tough however vital. Breakdowns have been acknowledged. Grievances have been aired.
“It’s just unacceptable,” Jaquez mentioned Thursday of the way in which the group performed as she mentioned on the bleachers contained in the Arsenal Technical Excessive gymnasium, “and what I appreciate most about this team is it’s going to do whatever it takes and we’re not satisfied and we did not feel good by any means after that, so it’s like, how can we change?
USC center Clarice Akunwafo, center, shoots over UCLA guard Gabriela Jaquez, left, during the Trojans’ win on March 1.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
“That’s why I respect all the girls, and we took accountability with each other. We’re the ones on the court, and we need to be better.”
To achieve the sport everybody in Los Angeles — and far of the remainder of the nation — desires to see, the Trojans and Bruins should keep away from the kind of obstacles they’ve nimbly sidestepped all season.
In convention video games not involving one another, USC and UCLA are a mixed 31-1 (these confounding Iowa Hawkeyes!). Thankfully for the second-ranked Trojans, their path to the championship sport doesn’t embrace Iowa, which is on the opposite aspect of the bracket from the group it defeated by seven factors final month in Iowa Metropolis.
After notching its first convention regular-season championship in 31 years, USC (26-2 general, 17-1 Huge Ten) will open the match at 9 a.m. PST Friday in opposition to ninth-seeded Indiana in a quarterfinal. Fourth-ranked UCLA (27-2, 16-2) will play both Illinois or Nebraska later within the day.
To emphasise the purpose that nothing is assured this time of yr, Trojans coach Lindsay Gottlieb advised her gamers that even their opening sport within the convention match may very well be as tough as a second-round sport within the NCAA match. 5 Huge Ten groups are nationally ranked, and 13 are projected by ESPN to make the NCAA match.
“In this league, if you’re an eight, nine seed — shoot, if you’re a 10, 11 seed in our conference — you’re probably an eight, nine seed in the NCAA tournament,” Gottlieb mentioned. “So we look at each game as, this is a one-and-done situation and these are really good teams that can beat anyone on any given night.”
Historical past means that the Trojans and Bruins will get their third assembly.
In Huge Ten play, USC outscored its convention opponents by a mean of 16 factors per sport. UCLA was practically as dominant, outscoring its opponents by a mean of practically 14 factors.
The stakes this week go properly past staging a 3rd rivalry sport. Whereas USC is looking for a second consecutive convention match title after profitable the ultimate Pac-12 match a yr in the past, UCLA has not gained a convention match since 2006.
There’s additionally the necessity to jockey for NCAA match positioning. Ought to the Trojans or the Bruins prevail within the Huge Ten match — significantly by knocking off the opposite group within the championship — they’d have a robust declare to the No. 1 general seed within the NCAA match.
Of better significance could be making certain a prime seeding in one of many Spokane regionals that feeds into the Last 4 in Tampa, Fla.
Then once more, Shut mentioned she needed her group to consider what it wanted to do to win moderately than what profitable would imply.
“I think we felt the pressure of what was at stake in that last home game, and I didn’t think we played our competitive best,” Shut mentioned. “I think we need to focus on our process, I think we need to focus on our preparation, and then we need to surrender the outcomes and just give everything to each other.
“I’m trying to stay away from all of that because I think they all know, everyone has big dreams and big goals on this team, but I think focusing on what’s at stake — eh — I don’t know if it helps us get to where we want to go.”
So far as this week goes, there’s little doubt concerning the supposed vacation spot. It includes a renewal of the crosstown rivalry, midway throughout the nation.
