USC's historic ride continues with first Sweet 16 in 30 years (2024)

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Every success USC has achieved during its 2023-24 season — a campaign that lives on for another day after a 73-55 victory over Kansas Monday – has felt like a reminder, an echo of the program’s storied history.

It helps that the Trojans place every win in historical context. The championship in Las Vegas was the first Pac-12 tournament title since 2014, when current assistant coach Courtney Jaco was the team’s most outstanding player. JuJu Watkins was the first All-America first-team selection since 1997, when Tina Thompson, who is a USC Hall of Famer, the first overall draft pick in WNBA history, and a four-time WNBA champion, earned back-to-back nods.

And now, the Trojans are in the Sweet 16 for the first time in 30 years, back when Thompson and fellow USC all-timer Lisa Leslie donned the cardinal and gold.

The Trojans are building something in Los Angeles for the new generation. But to put it more accurately, they are resurrecting a program that lives in the lore of women’s basketball. As the sport reaches an inflection point with modern-day superstars such as Watkins, it’s fitting that a historic program is helping to carry the torch.

“When I had the opportunity to consider taking this job, I think my mindset was what a humbling opportunity to be at essentially maybe the greatest brand in college sports, a great history in women’s basketball and have the opportunity to revive it,” Lindsay Gottlieb said. “What a great, incredible, humbling opportunity that I try to live up to every day for the incredible alumni that we have.”

.@USCWBB ➡️ SWEET SIXTEEN pic.twitter.com/DyANWjIOou

— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) March 26, 2024

At USC this season, the past is married to the present. That was a priority when Gottlieb arrived in Los Angeles, to create an open door for the alumni of previous eras, and for both generations to benefit from the other. Watkins calls upon Cheryl Miller – or as she says, G.O.A.T. – to talk about their shared mentality and competitiveness, and Miller moonlights on the broadcast to wax poetic about her Trojan successor. Every record that Watkins breaks, like the single-season scoring record she passed in Saturday’s first-round win over Texas A&M Corpus Christi, brings more attention to the fact that Miller set the mark in the first place.

Gottlieb says her team has the kind of chemistry you can’t manufacture, but that harmony extends throughout the history of the program. Everyone is on the same page, from Miller through Watkins, in search of a return to college basketball’s mountaintop.

There are echoes of USC’s former glory in this team. Watkins is the spiritual heir to Miller in more ways than one. She sets the tone, especially important in the NCAA Tournament against teams who are new to the Watkins experience. The freshman had 7 points in the first quarter as the Trojans raced out to an 8-point lead. The margin ballooned to 14 in the second before Kansas could adjust, and by then, the home team had enough cushion to hold on.

Monday was also a showcase for Rayah Marshall and Clarice Akunwafo, the 2024 roster’s descendants of the McGee twins. Each time the Trojans have faced a dominant frontcourt presence, like Taiyanna Jackson of the Jayhawks, they know that the opponent has to deal with two of their bigs. Jackson’s length was a tough matchup for Marshall, so Akunwafo came in to change the game with her physicality. Her 9 rebounds and career-best 6 blocks in 19 minutes busted Kansas’ zone defense. Akunwafo entered the contest with 1:36 to play in the third quarter and USC clinging to a 3-point advantage; the junior center played the rest of the way as the Trojans won by 18.

“I would put Clarice against any big in the country,” Watkins said after the win.

It is Watkins, as ever, who ties things together for USC. Her decision to stay home and bring back greatness to this school is the reason the Ivies wanted to come along for the ride. She is why people are flocking to Galen Center and filling up the arena in a way it never has been. Her magnetism and humility are the uniting forces within the locker room. And her brilliance on the court makes the team’s success possible.

As the Trojans tick off a checklist of accomplishments en route to the ultimate prize, they know the credit goes to Watkins first. Miller and Thompson and the others are grateful that USC is back in the national spotlight because of the freshman, and her teammates get to live out their dreams because they play with her.

“It’s a blessing to play by her side,” McKenzie Forbes said about Watkins. “She’s an incredible generational talent. I think you guys have seen that on display. Just feel really lucky to be a part of the group that kind of brought it back and also shine light on the legends who came before us. So it’s just been really fun to see this place come back to life.”

At USC, the past is never too far away. On Monday, 2022 Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams sat behind 2004 honoree Matt Leinart, a reminder of the school’s present and prior greatness all at once.

Gottlieb put the program’s history front and center, and Watkins is adding to the legacy in real time. While the Trojans celebrate a date in the Sweet 16, a place the school hasn’t been since 1994, Watkins is already thinking about how this success will last beyond her.

“When I’m done playing, when (Forbes) is done playing, we want it to still be a winning culture here,” Watkins said Monday. “We come back like Cheryl has done and Tina and some legends that have come back just to cheer us on, and we hope to do that in the future as well.”

In the present, there is plenty for this generation of fans to celebrate. This is a team with real national title aspirations that is reminding the world of what USC has been and alerting them to what Watkins and this program can still become.

(Photo of JuJu Watkins: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images)

Sabreena Merchant is a women's basketball Staff Writer for The Athletic. She previously covered the WNBA and NBA for SB Nation. Sabreena is an alum of Duke University, where she wrote for the independent student newspaper, The Chronicle. She is based in Los Angeles. Follow Sabreena on Twitter @sabreenajm