On Thursday, the USC women’s basketball team received its 2024-25 Big Ten championship rings. The rings are beautiful and personal, an intentional goal for junior guard Malia Samuels and sophomore guard Kennedy Smith, who helped design them.
At the end of the spring semester, the pair were asked if they would be interested in helping design the rings and they both enthusiastically agreed.
“I feel like I wanted to be involved because I was one of the last members of that specific group that was together. I’m one of the few returners that were coming back for this year,” Samuels said. “So I feel like I just wanted to go out on a bang for everybody that was involved in that special run of last year.”
Samuels and Smith were fully involved in the design process, hoping to make it as personal to the team as possible while adding an extra flair. During the process, the company that made the rings, Jostens, showed them design samples, and their creativity ran wild from there. Luckily for Samuels, she had a helpful reference, her 2023-2024 Pac-12 championship ring.
The duo added many elements, including the victory sign, palm trees and their Big Ten regular-season title trophy. After some sessions with Jostens, they were able to tailor the ring uniquely to the team.
A notable element of the ring was the inscription inside the band that read, “over and over and over.” It became a season-long motto that Samuels recalled starting right before the Trojans played their crosstown rival, UCLA.
“It kind of represents consistency,” Samuels said. “It’s from a video of Marshawn Lynch, like this viral video that he has where he’s saying ‘over and over and over again,’ and that kind of just stuck with us through the entire year.”
The palm trees weren’t part of the initial design, but after seeing some open space on the Elite Eight right side of the ring, they knew something was missing. Palm trees seemed like the perfect fit for a team based in sunny Southern California.
“I feel like the palm trees are really LA, that kind of just represents where we are,” Samuels said. “We feel like we’re a team for the city and for the community. And I feel like incorporating the palm trees is a good way to represent that.”
Every piece in the ring was intentional to represent the team’s historic season. Another element was the yellow lines pattern behind the victory symbol, which is seen throughout the Galen Center and incorporated onto many of the different sports jerseys. Samuels got the idea to incorporate that after seeing it on someone’s shirt.
“I was like, ‘I think we should incorporate that’,” Samuels said. “I always see that around, that kind of represents USC and I feel like we should do that to fill up that empty space.”
Samuels’ favorite detail, however, was mixing the metals on the front of the ring. Silver and gold were incorporated, along with the signature USC cardinal color in the back. The attention to detail paid off as Samuels and Smith got an overwhelmingly positive response from the team.
“Everybody liked it – coaches, support staff. Everybody loved it,” Samuels said. “I think it’s something that’s different.”
While it’s exciting to start the season off with a ring, make no mistake. Samuels has her eyes on a bigger prize: a national championship ring.
“I’m on ring number two. Two rings in two years,” Samuels said. “I’m hoping to get that national championship ring. It never gets old.”
Of course, Samuels would love the opportunity to design the next team ring and joked that she should start thinking about it now. After the joke, she emphasized, “We gotta back it up with our play and our win.”
It’s fun for Samuels to think of the opportunity of what her next ring might look like, but she’s aware of the long road ahead to get there. The Trojans expect to be a competitive team, despite only having six active returning players. Just one of them – Smith – was a starter.
The new Trojan squad will look to impress at home during its season kick-off on Nov. 4 against New Mexico State at Galen Center.