When Lindsay Gottlieb appears again on final basketball season, it’s unattainable not to consider the strain. The highlight on USC burned brightly from Day 1 final fall, the entire hoops world seemingly ready on JuJu Watkins to raise the Trojans to a nationwide title. Everybody throughout the program felt that weight. Even USC’s coach.
“Everyone felt we were a national championship contender,” Gottlieb stated.
There have been classes realized by way of that crucible, she admits now, and loads of issues she would possibly do otherwise. Although nobody might’ve deliberate for Watkins’ knee to buckle awkwardly beneath her within the second spherical of the NCAA event — or for the harm to rob her of your entire subsequent season at USC, throwing an enormous wrench into the Trojans’ trajectory.
Now, as USC prepares for a season with out its famous person, there isn’t any such strain. Because the Trojans’ season ideas off Tuesday in opposition to New Mexico State, the highlight might be busy shining elsewhere. As a result of so far as the school hoops world is now involved, with Watkins sidelined, there are not any outdoors expectations for the Trojans to begin this season.
USC guard JuJu Watkins high-fives head coach Lindsay Gottlieb. Watkins’ star standing introduced nationwide title expectations final season.
(Jae C. Hong / Related Press)
A 12 months in the past, Gottlieb needed to confront that hype head-on. “It would have been foolish to ignore the [expectations],” she stated.
However this 12 months? “I think it would be foolish to do anything but ignore them.”
After mounting a run to the Elite Eight final March — partly, with out Watkins — USC was voted No. 18 within the preliminary Related Press prime 25 ballot. Gottlieb dismissed preseason polls as largely “educated guesses” when requested final month in regards to the Trojans’ rating. Some followers, although, noticed it as disrespectful after a season during which USC misplaced simply 4 video games and received the Massive Ten common season title.
However the reality is the Trojans do open the season with much more questions than solutions. USC misplaced not simply Watkins, however six of its prime seven scorers from the Elite Eight staff to both harm, the WNBA or the switch portal. It has no confirmed gamers within the frontcourt, with a four-big committee anticipated to open the season. To not point out one of many hardest schedules within the nation awaiting them, with 4 video games in opposition to the preseason prime three: UCLA, South Carolina and Connecticut.
“There’s a lot more that’s still unknown than at this time last year,” stated Gottlieb, who’s coming into her fifth season as coach. “And so that’s me, having my work cut out for me.”
That work begins with Watkins — or relatively, the gaping void her absence leaves on each ends of the ground.
Gottlieb has no delusions of somebody stepping proper into the famous person’s place. Even whether it is tempting to attach the dots to freshman Jazzy Davidson, the nation’s prime prospect in 2025.
“No one is filling JuJu’s shoes. Those are very unique shoes,” Gottlieb stated. “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.
“She’s really, really good. I’ll start with that. She’s next-level good.”
How rapidly that expertise interprets on the courtroom might very nicely decide the course of USC’s season. However Davidson has no real interest in being in comparison with the Trojans’ final prime prospect, who grew to become an on the spot sensation as a freshman.
Freshman Jazzy Davidson works out throughout a USC ladies’s basketball observe on the Galen Heart.
(USC Athletics / Related Press)
“She’s JuJu — she’s a generational player,” Davidson stated. “I think we both do separate things. She’s been super helpful in my transition. But I’m really just coming in to help the team win, whatever way I can.”
Nobody doubts she’ll do this. Already, the freshman’s defensive prowess particularly has made an impression in observe.
“Her length is incredible,” stated sophomore guard Kennedy Smith. “Her wingspan is so long. She’s blocking shots all the time.”
Her offense ought to little doubt observe, contemplating that Davidson is the all-time main scorer within the historical past of Oregon Class 6A ladies’s basketball.
However how a lot the Trojans need to lean on their star freshman early within the season, particularly with powerful non-conference tilts looming in opposition to Connecticut and South Carolina, stays to be seen.
No matter who takes the lead on offense, USC will want Smith to make a significant leap on that finish, if the Trojans hope to maintain up in a aggressive Massive Ten race.
USC guard Kennedy Smith holds the ball away from UConn guard Paige Bueckers throughout an Elite Eight NCAA event recreation on March 31 in Spokane, Wash.
(Younger Kwak / Related Press)
Already a dominant defender in her first season, Smith was inconsistent taking pictures from the perimeter as a freshman. Now, contemporary off a gold-medal run with Crew USA at FIBA AmeriCup, Smith stated she’s “really getting into my bag” as a sophomore.
“I feel like in my role, I have to be more consistent,” she stated. “But I feel like everybody on this team has value and everybody can get a bucket if they want.”
USC will want all palms on deck if it has any hope of defending its Massive Ten title. Georgia Tech switch Kara Dunn might be important to the Trojans’ backcourt as its most constant menace from three-point vary. USC additionally wants somebody to emerge from a four-big committee that features Yakiya Milton, Laura Williams, Vivian Iwuchukwu and Lithuanian import Gerda Raulusaityte, none of whom have averaged greater than two factors per recreation taking part in school basketball.
These questions will should be answered quickly sufficient. However so far as anyone inside this system is taken into account, the expectations received’t change both method.
“The goal still remains the same, which is the national championship,” Smith stated. “It’s just navigating with what we have.
“And our situation, it isn’t bad at all.”
