The USC women’s basketball program is the first women’s college basketball program to win two NCAA Tournaments. This is the legacy and creation of basketball icon Cheryl Miller — the better basketball player in the Miller family, as she would remind younger brother and UCLA Bruin Reggie Miller.
USC has a proud and rich women’s college basketball heritage. When Mike Bohn hired Lindsay Gottlieb away from the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, many people thought USC was going to return to being a national powerhouse. The question, though, was how long it would take.
This past Sunday against Stanford, USC arrived ahead of schedule. Midway through Gottlieb’s second season, the Trojans burst onto the scene and jumped into the middle of the NCAA Tournament conversation.
USC is by no means a tournament lock — the Trojans are squarely on the bubble — but playing in the strong Pac-12 means USC will have lots more chances to beat tournament-quality teams and improve its portfolio. Odds of making the NCAAs are not super-high (75 percent or better), but they’re also probably better than 50-50 at this point.
If USC gets to the NCAA Tournament in Year 2 under Lindsay Gottlieb, with No. 1 national recruit Juju Watkins coming aboard next season, it would be fair to say this program will be on track to soar in the bigger national picture.
It’s definitely time to devote more podcast coverage to USC women’s basketball, supplementing our increased written coverage, which you have seen this past week.
Co-host Ian Hest produced this episode:
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Pac-12 women’s basketball standings: USC is in the NCAA Tournament mix, and every game is big
