After USC’s inaugural season in the Big Ten, the team became regular-season champions with a 28-3 record. The run gave the Trojans a No. 1 seed in March Madness.
Now that the team is in the NCAA tournament and got the first win, how does USC keep going? While there are a lot of factors at play, here are the five most-vital pieces if the Trojans want to make a championship run.
1. Consistency
The most important thing the Trojans need to focus on is being consistent through all four quarters. During a bulk of games this season, they’ve nearly given fans a heart attack in the third or fourth quarter. I frequently thought to myself, “USC won because the other team just sucked more.”
USC’s last two regular-season matchups were against ranked opponents and it won those, but either could have gone a different way.
In the Trojans’ 76-66 win over then-No. 25 Illinois, they came out swinging in the first quarter, as they often do, with 26 points. But they never scored more than 19 in a quarter again after that. They scored 14, 17 and 19 in each of the resulting quarters.
Similarly, against then-No.22 Michigan State, USC put up 24 points in the first quarter, only to put up a mere 17 in the second quarter. In the third, the Trojans seemed to get it together by scoring 27 points, but all hope seemed lost in the fourth quarter when they only scored 15 points and had 11 turnovers.
If you look at the overall score, it doesn’t seem too bad. But consider that USC is after a national championship. Better teams will take advantage, and the tournament is full of high caliber teams.
Overall No. 1 seed UCLA exposed exactly why the Trojans need consistency in their Big Ten title matchup. USC was up by 10 until a nine-point third quarter and a 14-point fourth quarter. The Bruins took full advantage of mistakes. The Trojans’ lack of consistency could kill them when heading into the later rounds, especially considering they may have to face UCLA and No. 3-seeded UConn again.
2. Developing a game plan other than JuJu
Every game, the game plan seems to be to give the ball to sophomore guard JuJu Watkins. It makes sense — head coach Lindsay Gottlieb has a generational talent and it makes sense she would facilitate everything through her. But what happens when she’s having an off day?
There doesn’t seem to be a solution for this scenario, which was on full display when USC lost to Iowa. Waktins gets cold, the offense still runs through her and is ultimately unproductive. While she is insanely talented, she’s allowed to have an off day, but what if that happens in March? What’s the next move? It is not clear what Coach Gottlieb’s plan will be in that scenario.
She has a former Power Forward Player of the Year in graduate forward Kiki Iriafen and a promising freshman squad, giving Gottlieb tools to tap into during the tournament. If USC doesn’t have an answer other than Watkins, they might get exposed by teams like UConn.
3. Making layups
This shouldn’t be an issue for a national championship-contending team, but for some reason, it’s been a huge problem for USC. The number of missed bunnies is almost laughable.
The culprits in most of these instances are the bigs, Iriafen and senior center Rayah Marshall. I thought that this was mostly an issue USC left in the past, but during the first round against UNC Greensboro, Marshall and Iriafen were still missing easy layups.
Missed layups are a major factor in Iriafen’s offensive inconsistency. It could be a mental issue or still adapting to a new system, but in the first half of the season, Iriafen was not the same player she was at Stanford. She has significantly improved her play and is starting to live up to the hype. She and Watkins were promised to be the best duo in the country, and this tournament will prove if that’s really true or not.
4. Three-point shooting
One thing that USC is not very good at? Three-pointers.
There’s a possibility that USC will face great 3-point shooting teams. With the Kansas State win this past Sunday, the stage is set for USC to face the Wildcats if the Trojans defeat Mississippi State on Monday. Kansas State is second in D1 3-point field goal percentage at 38.8%. The Wildcats’ 3-point shooting is one of their greatest strengths and they used it to get past No. 4 Kentucky this weekend.
If USC makes it past Kansas State, it will head to the Elite Eight and most likely face UConn, which is seventh in 3-point shooting at 37.7%. USC will need to step up its 3-point game to continue surviving in March Madness.
After all, that’s what seemed to bring it success against UConn earlier in the season. The Trojans shot 9-for-16 from three, which was a huge factor in their win.
The leading contributor of those threes besides Watkins? Freshman guard Kennedy Smith. If USC hopes to win, she’ll need to be at her best in the tournament after missing time earlier in the season due to injury. Additionally, freshman guard Avery Howell has been giving the Trojans that three spark off the bench.
5. Defense
What the Trojans lack in 3-point shooting, they make up for in their defense. USC has a Defensive Player of the Year finalist in Watkins, but they have two X-factors on defense that people forget about: senior center Clarice Akunwafo and sophomore guard Malia Samuels.
Akunwafo’s skill and height has proven to be one of the keys in detaining UCLA’s Lauren Betts. If she can defend the 6-foot-7 Betts, she can defend almost anyone.
Samuel’s lockdown defense was on display in the Big Ten Tournament semifinal game against Michigan. She made crucial stops and racked up four rebounds and three assists.
These two have proven they can show up for the defense in big games, so they should be utilized the same during the tournament.
In the first round against UNC Greensboro, the Trojans weren’t having their best shooting day. However, their defense allowed them to keep the Spartans under 10 points each quarter. Freshman guard Kayleigh Heckel, who didn’t play like a freshman at all, helped pick up the defense. The depth that USC has on defense will be its greatest asset in the tournament.
Ultimately, if the Trojans are as consistent as Watkins’ bun, they have a chance to win a national championship.