Earlier than she got here to USC, it had by no means occurred to Jazzy Davidson how charmed her basketball upbringing had been. Rising up exterior of Portland, practically all of her years enjoying the sport have been spent with the identical tight-knit group of ladies — women who’d been finest mates since earlier than the fifth grade and who, in spite of everything that point, may anticipate her each transfer earlier than she made it.
“They’re basically my sisters,” Davidson says.
They’d been that method just about way back to she may bear in mind. Allie, she met in kindergarten. She and Sara joined the identical squad in second grade. By 10, Dylan, Reyce and Avery have been on the membership staff, too. For the following eight years or so, up via March’s Oregon women 6A state championship, they have been inseparable, the six of them spending nearly each waking second collectively.
However now, just a few days earlier than the beginning of her freshman season at USC, Davidson is in Los Angeles, whereas her former teammates are scattered throughout the Pacific Northwest enjoying with varied different Division I colleges. It’s an odd feeling, she admits, however an exhilarating one, too — to be right here with a brand new staff, persevering with her basketball journey with out the ladies who’d been there the entire method.
Reyce Mogel, left, Avery Peterson, Dylan Mogel and Jazzy Davidson performed collectively on youth and highschool groups.
(Courtesy of Reyce Mogel)
“Being here made me realize how comfortable I was with them,” Davidson mentioned. “It’s definitely different now, definitely a learning experience.”
Inside that well-worn dynamic, Davidson developed into one of many prime ladies’s hoops prospects within the nation, all whereas she and her mates led Clackamas Excessive on an unprecedented, four-year run of success. Now, early in her freshman season at USC, Davidson steps into circumstances that nobody would have anticipated when she signed with the varsity.
On the time, the expectation was that she may very well be introduced alongside as a proficient No. 2 whereas the Trojans’ generational star JuJu Watkins commanded all the skin noise and nightly double groups. However then Watkins injured her knee in March, forcing her to take a seat out the 2025-26 season. All of the sudden, the Trojans’ prime prospect additionally grew to become their saving grace.
Nobody, for the document, is saying that out loud at USC. Nor does anybody within the constructing anticipate Davidson to step seamlessly into Watkins’ footwear.
“Those are very unique shoes,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb says. “But the fact that Jazzy can step into our program and already just make a really unique and incredible impression on everybody is pretty wild.”
By her personal admission, Davidson has by no means been the quickest to heat up with new folks. Most exterior of her circle would in all probability describe her as “quiet” or “reserved.” It’s solely when you get to know her that you simply actually see who she is and what she’s able to.
USC obtained a short glimpse Sunday, with the Trojans trailing by a degree to No. 9 North Carolina State and 10 seconds on the clock. Popping out of a timeout, the 6-1 Davidson lower swiftly via two defenders towards the basket, caught an inbound go and, with out taking a step, laid within the game-winning bucket.
The stage will get even greater on Saturday, when No. 8 USC meets No. 2 South Carolina at Crypto Enviornment within the first of a number of grueling exams awaiting on a slate that features 4 video games in opposition to the highest three groups within the Related Press preseason prime 25 ballot. Any hope of the Trojans reaching the identical heights as final season hinges partially on their star freshman shortly discovering her potential.
Nobody has seen Davidson fulfill that promise like the ladies who’ve been there because the begin. So far as they’re involved, it received’t be lengthy earlier than the world sees what they’ve.
“If you know Jazzy,” says Allie Roden, now a freshman guard at Colorado State, “you know she can do anything she wants, pretty much.”
When Davidson’s mom noticed that her 5-year previous daughter was unusually tall, she signed Jasmine — who would later be often known as Jazzy — up for basketball. Roden was on that first staff. She has seen the video proof of the 2 of them, each nonetheless in kindergarten, launching basketballs over their heads on the backboard.
“We were terrible,” Roden says with amusing, “but we thought we were really great.”
Davidson moved down the road from Roden within the fourth grade, and by that time, she’d figured one thing out. Sufficient no less than to be a focus for Clackamas Excessive coach Korey Landolt, whose daughter performed for a similar membership program.
“I saw [Davidson] working with a trainer and just thought, ‘Huh, this kid is different,’” Landolt says.
From left to proper, Avery Peterson, Sara Barhoum, Dylan Mogel, Jazzy Davidson, Reyce Mogel, Allie Roden performed collectively for years, main Clackamas Excessive in Oregon to a state championship.
(Courtesy of Reyce Mogel)
As soon as the others joined forces a yr in a while the membership staff Northwest Choose, there wasn’t a lot anybody may do to cease them. The six women appeared to suit seamlessly collectively on the court docket. Off it, Roden says, “we were inseparable pretty much as soon as we met.” She doesn’t recall their staff dropping a sport in opposition to their age group for 2 full years at one level.
It was round that point that Davidson separated herself from the pack as a prospect. She’d grown to 5-foot-10 by the seventh grade, just for the pandemic to close down primarily your complete state, together with all highschool sports activities.
So Davidson threw herself into basketball. She and Sara Barhoum, who’s now a freshman at Oregon, began figuring out collectively throughout free time between on-line courses, doing what she may so as to add power to her spindly body. Then they’d shoot collectively at evening, every pushing the opposite to enhance.
“It was a big time for me,” Davidson says. “That was when I honed in on everything.”
Two or 3 times per thirty days, the staff would journey out of state to check themselves. On one notably memorable journey, simply the six of them entered a match in Dana Level. They ended up profitable the entire thing, beating among the nation’s finest groups, regardless of the very fact they’d stayed up late enjoying Heads Up and have been sunburned from a seaside go to the day earlier than.
These center faculty journeys solely cemented their bond — in addition to Davidson’s place as a prime prospect. By her freshman season, with all of them collectively at Clackamas Excessive, the key was out. Faculty coaches got here calling. Gottlieb, who had simply taken the job at USC, was one.
Even then, there was a sure grace with which Davidson performed the sport — as if it flowed from her naturally. “She’s so fluid,” Gottlieb explains. “She glides.” However there was additionally a fearlessness in attending to the rim in opposition to a lot older, stronger gamers.
“She had to hold her own,” Landolt says. “But people couldn’t stop her inside. They couldn’t stop her outside. She was just so versatile. She could do everything.”
As a gangly freshman, Davidson stuffed the stat sheet with 22 factors, eight rebounds, 4 steals, three assists and one block per sport on her method to being named Oregon’s Gatorade Participant of the Yr. She received the award once more as a sophomore … in addition to the following two years after that.
When these 4 years have been up, Davidson was the all-time main scorer in Oregon Class 6A women basketball historical past with 2,726 factors. Nonetheless, a few of her teammates contend she was even higher on the defensive finish.
“Jazzy is good at everything she does,” Barhoum mentioned. “But she’s probably the best defender I’ve ever seen.”
USC guard Jazzy Davidson blocks a shot by North Carolina State’s Devyn Quigley on Nov. 9 in Charlotte, N.C.
(Lance King / Getty Pictures)
The women performed on the identical staff for six years when Clackamas made a run to the 6A state championship sport. They’d spent a lot time with one another, their coach says, that it may very well be “a blessing and a curse.” Generally, they bickered like sisters, too.
Landolt would urge them to hang around with different mates, solely half-kidding. However all that point collectively made their connection on the court docket just about telepathic.
“There were so many passes I threw to Jazzy that no one else would’ve caught, but she was just there.” mentioned Reyce Mogel, who now performs at Southern Oregon. “We were always on the same page. And not just me and Jazzy. Everybody.”
Davidson was on the bench, in foul bother, for an extended stretch of the state championship sport in opposition to South Medford. However she delivered two key blocks within the ultimate minute as Clackamas received its first state title.
Two years later, once they returned to the state championship as seniors, Davidson was once more compelled to take a seat for an extended interval after twisting her ankle. This time, her absence “took the wind out of everyone’s sails,” Landolt says. Clackamas blew a 19-point, third-quarter lead from there, whilst a hobbled Davidson tried to provide it a go within the ultimate minutes.
The six women discovered one another after the ultimate buzzer, heartbroken. They knew it will be the final time.
Their ultimate document collectively at Clackamas: 102-14.
“We all were hugging,” Barhoum says, “and just saying to each other, we’re all off to do better things. We all made history. And now everybody is going to make history somewhere else.”
They might stay aside now, however the six women, all now enjoying on separate for school basketball packages, nonetheless discuss on a regular basis.
“I FaceTime one of them at least every day,” Davidson says.
Her Trojan teammates are nonetheless attending to know her, nonetheless studying her tendencies. That may include time. However the cause she finally selected USC, over each different prime program, was how a lot it felt like dwelling.
Via two video games, Davidson appears to have settled seamlessly right into a starring position at USC, inviting the inevitable comparisons to Watkins that Gottlieb would moderately keep away from.
USC guard Jazzy Davidson places up a three-point shot in opposition to North Carolina State on Nov. 9 in Charlotte, N.C.
(Lance King / Getty Pictures)
“You do not need to be anything other than what your best self is,” Gottlieb insists.
Her mates have seen up shut how far Davidson can take a staff at her finest. However nobody, not even the six of them, perceive the circumstances Davidson has stepped into fairly like Watkins.
Her recommendation was easy. However it nonetheless resonated with Davidson on the doorstep of the season.
“She just told me not to be anxious about any of this,” Davidson says. “You’re good. Just go play how you play, and you’ll be fine.”
