USC’s journey to the top tier of women’s basketball has been easy to see the past 12 months

The USC Trojans might have already arrived in a certain sense. One could reasonably say they arrived as a better team and a bigger force in women’s college basketball when they throttled No. 7 Ohio State on the first day of this season, November 6, 2023.

However, USC arrived in a fuller and more substantial sense on Sunday in the Galen Center. The Trojans beat No. 2 UCLA. They dealt a very powerful and balanced team its first loss of the season. They are 13-1. They solidified their position as a top-10 team. They will very likely be a top-three or four seed at the 2024 NCAA Tournament. In women’s college basketball, that means USC would get to host a first-round game with a chance to play a second-round game in the Galen Cener as well.

USC is playing in the big leagues now, in terms of playing for high stakes and high seeds and being a Sweet 16-level program with a chance to do more.

The program was good a year ago. It is very, very good right now. It is reaching for greatness.

How easy is it to measure the growth of this program over the past 12 months? Let’s talk about this progression for the Women of Troy:

AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

That photo above was taken on January 15, 2023, after USC beat No. 2 Stanford. Lindsay Gottlieb had no real chance to transform USC in her first season. In her second season — which was last year — it would have been real progress for USC to merely compete for an NCAA Tournament berth. If the Trojans were a bubble team, that would have been a good step forward.

The Trojans did even better than that, getting a solid No. 8 seed for the NCAA Tournament. The win over Stanford marked USC’s emergence from obscurity and irrelevance. The Trojans began to matter on that day in the Galen Center.

WIN AT COLORADO IN 2023

Last season’s USC team, after beating Stanford, became more of a target. Winning at Colorado showed that the Trojans could go on the road and beat a good team convincingly. It was important to show the Stanford win last January was not an isolated event, but the start of something bigger. USC continued to do things which showed the Trojans were for real and building a better program.

COMEBACK WIN OVER WASHINGTON STATE

In a six-week span last season, USC played five overtime games. It went 3-2 in them. If the Trojans had gone 0-5, they might not have made the NCAA Tournament. The team showed a lot of toughness, but the best of the five OT games — and the best of USC’s three OT wins last winter — was a comeback from a 16-point halftime deficit to beat Washington State on February 25. That game sealed USC’s place in the NCAA Tournament. It showed that the Trojans simply don’t quit. Their warrior mentality shined through. It’s even better now.

2023 NCAA TOURNAMENT

USC didn’t beat South Dakota State, but merely getting to the NCAA Tournament and learning what March Madness was all about was itself a huge moment for the program. USC was highly unlikely to beat top-seeded Virginia Tech in the second round, anyway; what mattered was that the Trojans got a taste of the big time, creating hunger for the new season and also showing Lindsay Gottlieb what she needed to do go take this thing to the next level.

IVY LEAGUE TRANSFERS

Bringing in Ivy League transfers McKenzie Forbes (Harvard), Kayla Padilla (Penn), and Kaitlyn Davis (Columbia) has turned out great for Gottlieb at USC. These role players have been great helpers for the other players on the roster. Gottlieb’s roster construction enabled this season to become what it has (with the chance to become something greater in the months ahead).

RAYAH MARSHALL

Rayah Marshall has stuck with it at USC. Staying within the program gave Gottlieb and assistant coach Beth Burns a piece they could work with and build upon. USC won without Marshall on Sunday versus UCLA, but the Trojans wouldn’t be here without her, and they will need her in the coming months.

JUJU WATKINS

She is just two and a half months into her collegiate playing career at USC, and yet JuJu Watkins is already so good and so well-rounded that we’re often wondering what more we can say about her.

JuJu does everything well. She is fearless in crunch time. She helps teammates and does the dirty work in addition to scoring. She is unselfish. She is humble. She is every coach’s — and fan’s — dream.

USC has a No. 1 recruit in the country who has already exceeded the hype and expectations. Wow.

BETH BURNS

Lindsay Gottlieb is a great head coach, but hiring Beth Burns as an assistant has been central to USC’s rise. Burns’ acumen as a defensive coach was on display against UCLA. Without Rayah Marshall, USC’s defense still dominated the Bruins, forcing 22 turnovers and limiting UCLA to 4-of-22 3-point shooting. USC wouldn’t be here without Beth Burns.

LINDSAY GOTTLIEB

If you hadn’t paid much attention to Lindsay Gottlieb when she was at Cal, you’re probably paying attention to her now. Gottlieb reached the 2013 Women’s Final Four at Cal. Over a decade later, it’s easy to see why she is an elite coach in the women’s game.

Gottlieb is doing everything with top-tier talent which Andy Enfield has failed to do with the men’s team. It’s easier to appreciate Gottlieb’s greatness when you realize that not every coach succeeds with elite talent. Coaches can’t just roll the ball out there. They have to find the right formula, inspire the right effort, and have the right plan. Gottlieb knows which buttons to push, with Beth Burns’ help. This is a rock-star coach who has USC in position to be great for a long time.

WIN OVER OHIO STATE IN SEASON OPENER

As soon as JuJu Watkins and USC put the finishing touches on No. 7 Ohio State in this season’s opening game on November 6, it was clear USC had the chance to be special. JuJu, playing in her first college game, looked very comfortable versus a top opponent. That was another indication that USC was ready to rise to a higher plane.

SUNDAY WIN OVER UCLA

Almost one year to the day after beating No. 2 Stanford and emerging from obscurity, USC beat another No. 2 team — UCLA — to make a heavyweight statement. These past 12 months have been bookended by wins over a No. 2-ranked team, and it’s clear that this win over a No. 2 team puts the Trojans in a different conversation. They’re not just the good team they were last year. They’re now much better with a chance to achieve more.

How big was this moment against UCLA? Let’s look at a few photos, below:

JEN COHEN TWEET

GALEN CENTER VIBES

MAJOR ENERGY

THE FINAL MOMENTS

Story originally appeared on Trojans Wire