Roughly 30 minutes of the Selection Sunday bracket reveal show had passed before the USC women’s basketball team finally heard its name announced.
“It took a long time, right? We’re definitely on the right channel, right?” Trojans head coach Lindsay Gottlieb joked during a post-bracket reveal press conference.
The Trojans were named a No. 9 seed and slated to play eighth-seeded Clemson in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday in Columbia, South Carolina. They received their fourth consecutive tournament berth with a lot of patience – and not just on Selection Sunday.
Losing JuJu Watkins to injury for the entirety of this season forced USC (17-13) to regroup and find its new identity while fighting through a Big Ten Conference schedule that threw a challenging opponent at the team every week.
The regular season ended on a four-game losing streak, but two of those losses came to nationally ranked teams in then-No. 10 Ohio State and No. 2 UCLA.
That’s only made the team more driven.
“We want to be the team that someone else doesn’t want to play,” senior guard Kara Dunn said. “We know that some games in the past we could have won – and we probably should have won – and knowing that and knowing the things that potentially could have lost us games, I think that that gives us the power to know that we can control the things that we can control.”
Dunn, the team’s second-leading scorer at 15.3 points per game, could be a focal point in multiple ways in Saturday’s opener.
She’s become an unquestionable leader in her one season with the Trojans and, on the court, she’s an elite finisher in the paint and from long range on a team that is averaging 16.5 assists per game.
Dunn also has experience playing against ACC teams after spending the previous three seasons with Georgia Tech. Second-year Clemson head coach Shawn Poppie remembers her, too.
“There’s a little bit of familiarity with that personnel,” Poppie told reporters on Selection Sunday. “I’m not sure she’s playing the same role that she did at Georgia Tech, but at least I know a few of the faces.”
Poppie also said Sunday that USC star freshman Jazzy Davidson is “top-notch.” Davidson is leading the Trojans in every major statistical category, including points (17.6), rebounds (5.7), assists (4.2), steals (2) and blocked shots (2).
The 6-foot-1 guard had a brief health scare when she needed an MRI after her arm got tangled up with Washington guard Avery Howell in the Big Ten Tournament. USC announced in a social media post on March 11 that she will be available for the NCAA Tournament.
If Davidson is fully healthy, her shot-blocking ability, as well as 6-1 sophomore guard Kennedy Smith’s aggressive style of defense, could come in handy against a Clemson team (21-11) that ranked fourth in the ACC in 3-point percentage at 34.2%.
Multiple Trojans, including Davidson, are making their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
Senior guard Londynn Jones (10.5 ppg) has the most tournament experience after reaching the Final Four with UCLA last spring. Junior guard Malia Samuels and Smith are the only players who received significant playing time in USC’s tournament run last season, which ended in the Elite Eight.
Clemson is also entering the tournament fresh and has secured its first berth in seven years. Its advantage in this game could be a home state environment.
The Tigers have only a 2-hour drive to Colonial Life Arena, meaning there could be a lot of orange in the stands on Saturday.
“If it’s a quote-unquote hostile environment, we feed off of energy and people there,” Gottlieb said. “I hope it’s a really full building. And we’ve got to do what we need to do to be able to get a win.”
The winner of Saturday’s first-round game will move on to play top-seeded South Carolina (31-3). It would be a rematch for either team – USC lost to the Gamecocks, 69-52, on Nov. 15 at Crypto.com Arena and Clemson fell, 68-61, on Nov. 11.
The Tigers played that game at Colonial Life Arena, giving them some familiarity with the environment. They savor the thought of getting another shot at an in-state rival, but not without taking the Trojans seriously.
“I think a lot of people will jump to that second round with South Carolina and the rivalry and all that,” Poppie said, “but we’re going to have our hands full in the opening round and have a lot of respect for what they’ve done.”
NCAA TOURNAMENT
Who: No. 9 seed USC (17-13) vs. No. 8 seed Clemson (21-11)
When: Saturday, 12:30 p.m. PT
Where: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, South Carolina
TV/Radio: ESPN2/710 AM
