The end of the USC women’s 2025-25 basketball season left questions floating through Galen Center.
What would they do without JuJu Watkins, whose ACL injury sent the women’s basketball world reeling? Who could fill the shoes of Kiki Iriafen and Rayah Marshall, who are out of eligibility?
The defending Big Ten regular-season champions had to make their own magic.
Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb built a roster that is equal parts returning talent and high-level transfers while embracing the incoming star power of freshman Jazzy Davidson.
“Right from the start over the summer,” Gottlieb told reporters, “it was a team that organically got along really well, spent time together of their own accord without me mandating it.
“The way that we play is going to necessitate everyone’s participation in it. Where I think we can make growth is having that chemistry really translate to talking to each other on the court. I’m not talking about just high-fiving.”
The No. 18 Trojans begin the season Tuesday in a 7 p.m. tipoff against New Mexico State.
Building depth
Sophomore guard Kennedy Smith is a lock for the starting lineup this season. Not only is she healthy after missing seven games due to injury last season, she’s also expanding her game to get other players involved and building her leadership abilities.
It’s more difficult to project who the other starters may be.
“Our depth is going to be part of what we’re doing,” Gottlieb said. “And I think whoever doesn’t start – comes off the bench at our sixth player or seventh player – might play more minutes. We don’t know.”
Gottlieb expects all players to push the pace on offense while also knowing when to slow down and make a read. She’ll experiment with different lineup combinations early in the year, especially in the front court now that Iriafen and Marshall are gone.
Six-foot-5 Kakiya Milton, 6-foot-3 Vivian Iwuchukwu, 6-foot-2 Laura Williams, 6-foot-3 Gerda Raulušaityte and 6-foot-2 Dayana Mendez are all in consideration for a frontcourt that will have length and athleticism.
“We have really high hopes for the production that they can give us,” Gottlieb said. “We hope that they’ll give us points in transition. We know that we can defend on the interior and on the perimeter.”
The Jazzy-JuJu connection
Davidson was the No. 1 player in the 2025 recruiting class, according to ESPN, and shined in Team USA’s gold-medal performance at the FIBA U19 Cup over the summer.
Expectations are high. One of the few people who can relate to what she may go through in her freshman year is on the team with her.
“She and JuJu, from my vantage point and having a unique relationship with each of them, there’s a lot of similarities between the two of them,” Gottlieb said. “Natural introverts who live and die the game of basketball.”
Davidson missed multiple practices in the fall due to illness, but is back and ready to play in Tuesday’s season opener. She spent a lot of time soaking in Watkins’ mentorship in her return-to-play process and picked up where she left off when she came back.
Gottlieb was complimentary of her effort on both sides of the ball and a smoothness to her game that allows for scoring as well as distracting the defense or facilitating on offense.
“She’s just someone who very naturally makes the game easier for others,” the coach said. “I’m trying to talk to her every day about you do not need to be anything other than what your best self is.”
A challenging preseason
Three of the teams USC will see in the preseason were ranked in the first AP Top 25 poll of the season: No. 1 UConn, No. 2 South Carolina and No. 9 North Carolina State. They’ll also play Washington, which had the most votes out of all “receiving votes” teams.
An additional three teams on the preseason slate – Notre Dame, Tennessee Tech and Cal – reached the NCAA Tournament last season.
These top-level opponents will test the Trojans in a way that is welcomed.
“It’s the hardest schedule in the country, so any one game can’t set any one anything,” Gottlieb said. “We have to be nimble. We have to be resilient. We have to be competitive no matter what the first game looks like, no matter what the second game looks like.”
USC plays North Carolina State on the road in its second game of the season Nov. 9 before returning to Los Angeles to play South Carolina at Crypto.com Arena in an event dubbed “The Real SC” on Nov. 15. The Trojans will host UConn on Dec. 13 at Galen Center.