2023–24 USC Trojans women's basketball team

2023–24 USC Trojans women's basketball
2023–24 USC Trojans women's basketball
Conference	Pac-12 Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 6
AP	No. 9
Record	13–1 (3–1 Pac-12)
Head coach	Lindsay Gottlieb (3rd season);
Assistant coaches	Beth Burns (2nd season); Wendale Farrow (3rd season); Willnett Crockett (1st season); Courtney Jaco (1st season);
Home arena	Galen Center

2023–24 Pac-12 Conference women's basketball standings
	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 5 Colorado	5	–	0	1.000	15	–	1	.938
No. 8 Stanford	4	–	1	.800	15	–	2	.882
No. 2 UCLA	3	–	1	.750	14	–	1	.933
No. 9 USC	3	–	1	.750	13	–	1	.929
Oregon State	3	–	2	.600	14	–	2	.875
California	2	–	3	.400	12	–	5	.706
No. 19 Utah	2	–	3	.400	12	–	5	.706
Oregon	2	–	3	.400	11	–	7	.611
Arizona	2	–	3	.400	10	–	7	.588
Washington	1	–	3	.250	11	–	4	.733
Washington State	1	–	3	.250	12	–	5	.706
Arizona State	0	–	5	.000	8	–	9	.471

† 2024 Pac-12 tournament winner As of January 14, 2024 Rankings from AP Poll

The 2023–24 USC Trojans women's basketball team represents the University of Southern California during the 2023–24 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Trojans play their home games at the Galen Center and are members of the Pac-12 Conference. This is the last year the team will play in the Pac-12 as they are slated to join the Big Ten Conference. The squad is led by third-year head coach Lindsay Gottlieb.

USC started off ranked No. 21 in the preseason rankings in both the AP and Coaches Polls. The team was picked to finished 6th by the last-ever Pac-12 coaches poll.

Previous season

The Women of Troy finished the regular Pac-12 season tied for 4th with UCLA and Arizona. Because both of those teams held tiebreakers over USC, the Trojans earned the 6th seed in the 2023 Pac-12 Conference women's basketball tournament.

The squad earned its first bid for the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament since 2014.^[1] and its first at-large bid since 2006. Holding an 8-seed in the 2023 NCAA tournament, the Women of Troy fell in overtime in the first round to 9-seeded South Dakota State, 57-62.

Last year's team spent much of the season receiving votes in both polls and made the top 25 once in the AP Poll. In the last AP Poll, they received 3 votes while they no longer received any votes in the final two coaches' polls.^[2]

Offseason changes

The Women of Troy will bring in 2 first-years out of high school, 1 transfer student, and 4 graduate students. 1 student who red-shirted last year is also expected to play this coming season. 6 players from the previous year graduated while 1 transferred and 1 retired.

Regarding coaching staff, Women of Troy alumna Courtney Jaco, who previously served as Director of Player Development and who as a player won the 2014 Pac-12 tournament to qualify for the NCAA tournament, was promoted to Assistant Coach.^[3] Wilnett Crockett also joined the coaching staff as an Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator. Meanwhile, Nneka Enemkpali joined the Rutgers coaching staff during the off-season.^[4]

Departures

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Year	Hometown	Reason for Departure
Koi Love	0	F	6'0"	Junior	Orlando, FL	Retired
Destiny Littleton	11	G	5'9"	Graduate Student	San Diego, CA	Graduated
Bella Perkins	12	F	5'9"	Sophomore	Fairfax, VA	Transferred to Pittsburgh
Madison Campbell	23	G	5'11"	RS Junior	Fresno, CA	Retired for Medical Reasons
Okako Adika	24	G/F	6'0"	Graduate Student	Holstebro, DK	Graduated
Alyson Miura	25	G	5'9"	Senior	Clackamas, OR	Graduated
Kadi Sissoko	30	F	6'2"	Graduate Student	Paris, FR	Graduated
Rokia Doumbia	52	G	5'9"	Graduate Student	Bamako, ML	Graduated

Incoming transfers

Name	Num	Pos.	Height	Year	Hometown	Previous School
McKenzie Forbes^[5]	0	W	6'0"	Graduate Transfer	Folsom, CA	Harvard
Dominique Onu^[6]	23	G	5'9"	Junior	Los Angeles, CA	UCLA
Kaitlyn Davis^[7]	24	G/F	6'0"	Graduate Transfer	Norwalk, CT	Columbia
Roxane Makolo	24	G	5'10"	Graduate Transfer	Saint-Hubert, QC, CA	Purdue
Kayla Padilla^[8]	45	G	5'9"	Graduate Transfer	Torrance, CA	Penn

2023 recruiting class

Source:^[9]

Name	Overall Rank	Position	Position Rank	Hometown	High School	Height	ESPN Stars	ESPN Grade
Juju Watkins	1	PG/SG	1	Los Angeles, CA	Sierra Canyon	6'0"	5	98
Malia Samuels	-	G	-	Seattle, WA	Garfield HS	5'6"	4	94

The Women of Troy bring in the tenth-ranked recruiting class in the country.^[10] The incoming squad features top-ranked high school recruit Juju Watkins and 49th-ranked Malia Samuels.^[11] Redshirt first-year Aaliyah Gayles is also expected to play after having sat out the previous season due to injury.^[12] Gayles, ranked No. 8 in the country for the class of 2022, was recruited by previous head coach Mark Trakh^[13]

Roster

2023–24 USC Trojans women's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Year	Previous school	Hometown
G	1	Taylor Bigby	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	Jr	Oregon	Las Vegas, NV
G	2	India Otto (W)	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	GS	Windward School	Los Angeles, CA
G	3	Aaliyah Gayles	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	RS Fr	Spring Valley HS	Las Vegas, NV
G	4	Kayla Williams	5 ft 7 in (1.7 m)	Sr	UC Irvine	Los Angeles, CA
G	10	Malia Samuels	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)	Fr	Garfield HS	Seattle, WA
G	12	Juju Watkins	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	Fr	Sierra Canyon	Los Angeles, CA
G/F	13	Rayah Marshall	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	Jr	Lynwood HS	Los Angeles, CA
G	23	Dominique Onu	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	GS	UCLA	Los Angeles, CA
G	24	Kaitlyn Davis	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	GS	Columbia	Norwalk, CT
G	25	McKenzie Forbes	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	GS	Harvard	Folsom, CA
G	30	Roxane Makolo	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)	GS	Purdue	Quebec, CA
C	32	Clarice Akunwafo	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	Jr	Rolling Hills Prep	Inglewood, CA
G	45	Kayla Padilla	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	GS	Penn	Torrance, CA

Head coach

Lindsay Gottlieb (Brown)

Assistant coach(es)

Beth Burns (Ohio Wesleyan)
Wendale Farrow (Eastern Michigan)
Courtney Jaco (USC)
Wilnett Crockett (Connecticut)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Roster
Last update: November 7, 2023

Schedule

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	High points	High rebounds	High assists	Site city, state
Non-conference regular season
November 6, 2023* 11:00 a.m., TruTV	No. 21	vs. No. 7 Ohio State Hall of Fame Series Las Vegas	W 83–74	1–0	32 – Watkins	17 – Marshall	5 – Watkins	T-Mobile Arena Paradise, NV
November 10, 2023* 7:00 p.m.	No. 21	Florida Gulf Coast	W 67–51	2–0	18 – Tied	7 – Tied	6 – Forbes	Galen Center (4,712) Los Angeles, CA
November 13, 2023* 5:30 p.m.	No. 10	Le Moyne	W 93–43	3–0	35 – Watkins	9 – Watkins	5 – Forbes	Galen Center (1,009) Los Angeles, CA
November 20, 2023* 6:00 p.m., FloHoops	No. 8	vs. Seton Hall Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Championship	W 64–54	4–0	15 – Watkins	15 – Marshall	3 – Tied	Baha Mar Convention Center (409) Nassau, Bahamas
November 22, 2023* 6:00 p.m., FloHoops	No. 8	vs. Penn State Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Championship	W 71–70	5–0	31 – Watkins	12 – Watkins	3 – Watkins	Baha Mar Convention Center (297) Nassau, Bahamas
November 28, 2023* 7:00 p.m.	No. 6	Cal Poly	W 85–44	6–0	30 – Watkins	8 – Akunwafo	6 – Padilla	Galen Center (1,419) Los Angeles, CA
December 3, 2023* 3:00 p.m.	No. 6	San Diego	W 89–58	7–0	30 – Watkins	12 – Marshall	6 – Padilla	Galen Center (2,169) Los Angeles, CA
December 10, 2023* 3:30 p.m.	No. 6	UC Riverside	W 85–53	8–0	27 – Watkins	12 – Marshall	5 – Tied	Galen Center (4,201) Los Angeles, CA
December 18, 2023* 7:00 p.m., P12N	No. 6	Cal State Fullerton	W 93–44	9–0	23 – Watkins	6 – Tied	6 – Watkins	Galen Center (1,962) Los Angeles, CA
December 21, 2023* 2:00 p.m., ESPN+	No. 6	at Long Beach State	W 85–77	10–0	36 – Forbes	8 – Akunwafo	4 – Tied	Walter Pyramid (1,243) Long Beach, CA
Pac-12 Conference Regular season
December 30, 2023 5:00 p.m., P12N	No. 6	at No. 2 UCLA Rivalry	L 64–71	10–1 (0–1)	27 – Watkins	13 – Marshall	5 – Padilla	Pauley Pavilion (13,659) Los Angeles, CA
January 5, 2024 7:00 p.m., P12N	No. 9	Oregon State	W 56–54	11–1 (1–1)	28 – Watkins	14 – Marshall	5 – Marshall	Galen Center (2,749) Los Angeles, CA
January 7, 2024 12:00 p.m., P12N	No. 9	Oregon	W 68–54	12–1 (2–1)	17 – Watkins	9 – Tied	6 – Watkins	Galen Center (2,282) Los Angeles, CA
January 14, 2024 2:00 p.m., P12N	No. 9	No. 2 UCLA Rivalry	W 73–65	13–1 (3–1)	32 – Watkins	10 – Watkins	4 – Forbes	Galen Center (10,258) Los Angeles, CA
January 19, 2024 6:00 p.m., P12N		at Utah						Jon M. Huntsman Center Salt Lake City, UT
January 21, 2024 12:00 p.m., P12N		at Colorado						CU Events Center Boulder, CO
January 26, 2024 7:00 p.m., P12N		Washington State						Galen Center Los Angeles, CA
January 28, 2024 12:00 p.m., P12N		Washington						Galen Center Los Angeles, CA
February 2, 2024 7:00 p.m., P12N		at Stanford						Maples Pavilion Stanford, CA
February 4, 2024 12:00 p.m., P12N		at California						Haas Pavilion Berkeley, CA
February 9, 2024 7:00 p.m., P12N		Arizona State						Galen Center Los Angeles, CA
February 12, 2024 6:00 p.m., ESPN2		Arizona						Galen Center Los Angeles, CA
February 16, 2024 7:00 p.m., P12N		at Oregon						Matthew Knight Arena Eugene, OR
February 18, 2024 12:00 p.m., P12N		at Oregon State						Gill Coliseum Corvallis, OR
February 23, 2024 7:00 p.m., P12N		Colorado						Galen Center Los Angeles, CA
February 25, 2024 12:00 p.m., P12N		Utah						Galen Center Los Angeles, CA
February 29, 2024 5:00 p.m., P12N		at Arizona						McKale Center Tucson, AZ
March 2, 2024 11:00 a.m., P12N		at Arizona State						Desert Financial Arena Tempe, AZ
Pac-12 Women's Tournament
March 6–10, 2024 TBA, P12N/ESPN		vs. TBA						Michelob Ultra Arena Paradise, NV
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Pacific Time.

Source: USCTrojans.com^[14]

Rankings

Ranking movements
**Legend:** ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
т = Tied with team above or below
	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Final
AP	21	10	8	6	6	6	6	6	9	9										Not released
Coaches	21	10т	10	8	6	5	5	5	6	6

Awards and honors

Forbes
- Cheryl Miller Preseason Watchlist
- Pac-12 Player of the Week
Marshall
- Silver Medalist at the 2023 FIBA Women's AmeriCup.^[15]
- Jersey Mike's Naismith Award Watchlist
- Lisa Leslie Preaseason Watchlist
- Preseason All-Pac-12 Team
- John Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 Watchlist
Watkins^[16]
- No. 1 recruit in the nation
- National Gatorade Player of the Year
- Gold Medalist and MVP of the 2022 FIBA Under-17 Women's Basketball World Cup
- 2020 Sports Illustrated Sports Kid of the Year
- McDonald's All-American
- Los Angeles Times Girls Basketball Player of the Year, 2021, 2022, 2023^[17]
- USA Today Girls Basketball Player of the Year
- Jersey Mike's Naismith Award Watchlist
- Preseason All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention
- USBWA Tamika Catchings Freshman of the Week
- Pac-12 Freshman of the Week (x8) - Tie for All-Time Pac-12 record
- Pac-12 Player of the Week
- John Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 Watchlist

References

↑ "USC women are back in NCAA tournament; UCLA to host two rounds". Los Angeles Times. March 13, 2023.
↑ "2022-23 Women's College Basketball Rankings for Week 19". ESPN.
↑ Team, BVMSports (July 1, 2023). "USC's Courtney Jaco Promoted To Women's Basketball Assistant Coach". BVM Sports.
↑ "Nneka Enemkpali Joins Women's Basketball Coaching Staff".
↑ "McKenzie Forbes Grad Transfers to USC". USC Basketball. April 23, 2023.
↑ "USC Welcomes Mid-Year Transfer Dominique Onu From UCLA". USC Athletics. July 1, 2023.
↑ https://twitter.com/CULionsWBB/status/1655745212554117122
↑ Carnathan, Walker. "Kayla Padilla of Penn women's basketball announces graduate transfer to USC". www.thedp.com.
↑ "2023 High School Girls' Basketball Recruits - USC - ESPN". ESPN.com.
↑ "Top women's hoops recruit Watkins chooses USC". ESPN.com. November 15, 2022.
↑ "2023 HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings - espnW 100 - ESPN". ESPN.com.
↑ "Graney: Aaliyah Gayles authoring a remarkable comeback story". March 2, 2023.
↑ Selbe, Nick (June 2, 2022). "Watch: USC Celebrates Graduation of Signee Aaliyah Gayles, Victim of April Shooting". Sports Illustrated.
↑ "2022-2023 USC Women's Basketball Schedule". USCTrojans.com. Retrieved November 8, 2022.
↑ "Rayah Marshall". USA Basketball.
↑
- Incoming first-year Juju Watkins was ranked as the number one recruit in the nation.
↑ "Girls' basketball player of the year: Sierra Canyon's Juju Watkins, again". Los Angeles Times. March 19, 2023.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] "USC women are back in NCAA tournament; UCLA to host two rounds". Los Angeles Times. March 13, 2023.

[2] "2022-23 Women's College Basketball Rankings for Week 19". ESPN.

[3] Team, BVMSports (July 1, 2023). "USC's Courtney Jaco Promoted To Women's Basketball Assistant Coach". BVM Sports.

[4] "Nneka Enemkpali Joins Women's Basketball Coaching Staff".

[5] "McKenzie Forbes Grad Transfers to USC". USC Basketball. April 23, 2023.

[6] "USC Welcomes Mid-Year Transfer Dominique Onu From UCLA". USC Athletics. July 1, 2023.

[7] ttps://twitter.com/CULionsWBB/status/1655745212554117122

[8] Carnathan, Walker. "Kayla Padilla of Penn women's basketball announces graduate transfer to USC". www.thedp.com.

[9] "2023 High School Girls' Basketball Recruits - USC - ESPN". ESPN.com.

[10] "Top women's hoops recruit Watkins chooses USC". ESPN.com. November 15, 2022.

[11] "2023 HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings - espnW 100 - ESPN". ESPN.com.

[12] "Graney: Aaliyah Gayles authoring a remarkable comeback story". March 2, 2023.

[13] Selbe, Nick (June 2, 2022). "Watch: USC Celebrates Graduation of Signee Aaliyah Gayles, Victim of April Shooting". Sports Illustrated.

[14] "2022-2023 USC Women's Basketball Schedule". USCTrojans.com. Retrieved November 8, 2022.

[15] "Rayah Marshall". USA Basketball.

[16] 
Incoming first-year Juju Watkins was ranked as the number one recruit in the nation.

[mwAZY] Incoming first-year Juju Watkins was ranked as the number one recruit in the nation.

[17] "Girls' basketball player of the year: Sierra Canyon's Juju Watkins, again". Los Angeles Times. March 19, 2023.

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USC Trojans women's basketball
Venues	Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (1976–2006) Galen Center (2006–present)
Rivalries	UCLA Crosstown Cup
Culture & lore	History "Fight On" Traveler
People	Head coaches
Seasons	1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
NCAA national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics