Reaching the Sweet 16 used to be commonplace at USC; Trojans might be starting a new era of similar success
The first Women’s NCAA Tournament was held in 1982. From 1982 through 1994, USC was a legitimate national powerhouse in women’s college basketball. Yes, the height of USC’s glory came in the mid-1980s, with two national championships and three runs to the national title game, running through 1986. Even though the Final Fours didn’t continue to flow through the late 1980s and early 1990s, USC still made the Sweet 16 more often than not.
Here’s how consistently strong USC was as a women’s college basketball program through 1994, the last year before this one that the Trojans reached the Sweet 16: From 1982 through 1994 — 13 seasons — USC reached the Sweet 16 in 10 of those seasons. The Trojans made seven straight Sweet 16s from 1982 through 1988, then three straight years from 1992 through 1994. It was very rare when this program wasn’t playing for very high stakes in the second weekend of March Madness. Cheryl Miller played in a Sweet 16 and coached USC in a Sweet 16 in this glowing 13-year run of excellence. Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson continued what Miller’s USC teams had started a decade earlier.
It is striking to note this level of elite consistency given that USC then fell off the map in women’s college basketball for multiple decades. It has taken USC 30 years to get back to a Sweet 16. Now, Lindsay Gottlieb, JuJu Watkins, and the new-age Women of Troy hope to create a fresh standard in which USC regularly makes the Sweet 16 and is actually disappointed if the Sweet 16 is as deep as it goes in March. USC faces Baylor in the 2024 Sweet 16 this Saturday afternoon in Portland. The game starts at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time on ESPN.
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