Chills.
In a moment where it is literally my job to describe the events of this game, I struggle to find the words to explain what happened during the rivalry game rematch between the USC Trojans and the UCLA Bruins.
It was a coaching masterclass from one side and, well, quite the opposite from the other. If someone were to have said USC would win by 13 and had all of its subs in with over a minute to go, I don’t think any sane person would have believed them.
Yet, this was the case in USC’s wire-to-wire, 80-67 victory over UCLA on Saturday night.
It’s no revelation to say that USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb has completely transformed the program compared to where it was four years ago. However, with this game, the most crucial of her four years behind the wheel, she showed why USC really should be ranked No. 1 in the country.
The Trojans came out hot, thanks to star sophomore guard JuJu Watkins, who played 38 of 40 available minutes, only sitting on the bench for the very beginning of the second quarter and coming out in garbage time. UCLA started with junior center Lauren Betts whiffing the game’s opening possession, which was kept alive by an offensive board, only for graduate forward Angela Dugalić to clank the second shot amid the loud chants for the Bruins.
On USC’s first possession, Fox announcer Jason Benetti said precisely what every Bruin was thinking.
“Oh boy… JuJu Watkins has the first bucket.”
It surely was an “oh boy,” as Watkins launched the three straight in the face of the 6-foot-4 Dugalić. It didn’t stop there, though, as Watkins started the game five-for-six from the field with 13 points in the first seven-and-a-half minutes. But it wasn’t just Watkins who helped USC to a quick 9-0 start against the Bruins, as graduate guard Talia Von Oelhoffen stepped up with an and-one 3-pointer to start a rather explosive game of her own, finishing with a crucial eight points and four rebounds before fouling out.
Von Oelhoffen converting her and-one is where UCLA’s coaching blunders started. Instead of calling a timeout, head coach Cori Close just started subbing out her stars, specifically junior guards Londynn Jones and Gabriela Jaquez. Watkins somewhat forced Close’s hand with the first switch, as she made significant adjustments from her slower second half against UCLA during the two teams’ first meeting in which Jones was guarding her and kept Watkins to a mere 13 second-half points. The 6-foot-2 sophomore seemed to remember that she is ten inches taller than Jones, so Watkins just shot straight over her in those opening possessions, significantly contributing to Watkins' impressive 23 first-half points on Saturday.
But why take out Jaquez? Some players need breaks, but in games like this, stars cannot take them, especially less than four-and-a-half minutes into the game. The same can be said of Close’s closing rotation; while the Bruins were down 17 points with four-and-a-half to go, why did Close take out Jaquez? Similarly, why did Betts come out with a little over two minutes to go? For those who say that it was because the Trojans were up by nearly 20, I agree. However, Close still had junior guard Kiki Rice in the game, and Jaquez finished the game on the court as well, showing that UCLA did not completely throw in the towel.
One has to ask: why is Betts getting only 31 minutes against the Trojans?
It’s still a lot of minutes, but as the best big in women’s basketball right now, with a singular foul to her name and in the biggest game of the season, Betts should, under zero circumstances, even take a look at the bench, let alone sit on it. Especially given that Betts was doing a fantastic job drawing fouls from USC’s bigs — including both graduate forward Kiki Iriafen and senior center Rayah Marshall — there was no reason that Betts should’ve been taken out when she has shown in the past that she can play the full 40.
Sometimes, coaches make poor decisions — that’s a fact in sports — and most of the time, they will at least admit responsibility in a post-game press conference. But as if she were on Jeopardy!, Close went for the true daily double and shocked most people in the media room — certainly me — by throwing the blame on her players.
“If you do what we ask and it doesn’t work, it’s our fault. If you go out and you don’t do what we ask, it’s your fault,” Close said. “I think you all know me well enough now that I’m going to say [it’s] myself first… But I’m going to tell you our team was prepared, and we knew what to do and we didn’t do it.”
I clearly don’t know her well enough, because that is a wild thing for a coach to say in a press conference, no matter how angry they are. A nearly 18-minute press conference full of crumpled-up stat sheets and a desk slam later, and one quickly realizes why things crumbled late so quickly for the Bruins and it makes you take a deep look at what is going to happen to them when adversity strikes next in either the Big Ten tournament or during March Madness.
Credit to USC though, for capitalizing on UCLA’s shortcomings at each opportunity, scoring 25 points from Bruin turnovers. The Trojans played hard through the full 40 minutes, even when they had to switch to a four-guard strategy after Iriafen hit her third foul relatively early in the game. It was probably a good thing that happened, in retrospect, as Iriafen’s momentary absence created room for freshman guard Avery Howell to deliver a dagger with back-to-back 3-pointers in 20 seconds to push USC’s lead to 16 and then 19.
With just about two minutes left in the game, a chant echoed throughout Pauley Pavilion, but not one from the fans wearing blue. Up by nearly 20 points, the Trojan fans who came out to support their team rang out in unison, “We are… SC”. Only the game clock was stopping the Trojans from beating UCLA in Pauley for the first time since January 2019.
As we wait for what lies ahead in the Big Ten tournament and March Madness, there is an eerie feeling that this duo of dominant teams might not have seen each other for the last time. But for now, No. 2 USC has earned a double-bye and will play the winner of No. 8 seed Oregon and No. 9 seed Indiana on March 7 to begin the Big Ten postseason.