USC women’s basketball began its season on Monday in Paris against Ole Miss. This season is freighted with very high expectations for the Trojans, who were ranked No. 3 in both major preseason polls. USC reached the Elite Eight last season and played the dynastic UConn Huskies for a spot in the Final Four. The Trojans won the last Pac-12 Tournament and gained a No. 1 seed in the Women’s NCAA Tournament. When a program achieves all those milestones and then brings in multiple high-profile transfers and a top-ranked recruiting class to accompany JuJu Watkins, the expectations should be high.
How did USC women’s basketball begin its 2024-2025 season? With a bad performance and a great result.
The Trojans led Ole Miss 43-28 midway through the third quarter. They did so even though Talia von Oelhoffen was a total non-factor in this game due to foul trouble, and even though they committed eight turnovers in the first quarter and had 16 turnovers in the first two and a half quarters. USC’s defense was able to build the lead, but even when the Trojans were up 15, it’s not as though they were playing especially well on offense. USC could not gain any sort of comfort zone on offense, and before the Trojans knew it, they had been outscored by 19 points, trailing 64-60 with a little over two minutes left. However, they were able to rescue themselves in the final two minutes and win, 68-66. Let’s take you through this stressful game and what it means for this USC women’s basketball team going forward:
26 TURNOVERS
USC committed 26 turnovers against Ole Miss’s elite defense. That the Trojans were competitive in this game, let alone able to win it, shows how good the team was at the defensive end of the floor. It also shows how tough this USC team is, enduring a nightmarish performance and still finding a way to get the job done. USC women’s basketball didn’t play a high-level game, but it prevailed. If only USC football had this level of toughness.
JUJU WATKINS — THE GOOD
There was plenty to like about JuJu Watkins’ first game as a USC sophomore: 27 points, 10 rebounds, 10 of 12 at the foul line, 5 blocked shots. She did get to the foul line, an essential component of a winning effort for USC against good opponents. She played solid help defense. JuJu making contributions at both ends of the floor makes her a well-rounded star, not just a scorer. That makes such a key difference for USC.
JUJU WATKINS — THE BAD
JuJu Watkins committed 9 turnovers against Ole Miss’s outstanding defense. JuJu realized immediately that she can’t make imprecise plays. Good defenses will punish them. JuJu also took way too many off-balance shots, some forced leaners which should have been resets or kickouts. She got unsettled by the Ole Miss defense. JuJu at her best is able to slice through defenders and remain upright with her body control, finishing through contact. She did that a few times but lost patience on many occasions. Lindsay Gottlieb should be able to help her understand how to respond to rugged on-ball defense.
TALIA VON OELHOFFEN
The biggest concern for USC coming out of this game against Ole Miss is Talia von Oelhoffen. JuJu Watkins and Kiki Iriafen showed why they were stars. Von Oelhoffen was supposed to give USC a third star presence and round out the starting five, but it didn’t show up against Ole Miss.
To be fair, von Oelhoffen immediately picked up three fouls. She was immediately taken out of the flow of the game by an officiating crew which did not have a good showing in Paris. That much needs to be acknowledged. However, TVO was still surprisingly quiet and ineffective on offense. JuJu and Kiki got their points and were able to find ways to score. Von Oelhoffen was conspicuously absent against a good defense. USC needs TVO to be that third core star behind JuJu and Kiki. We shouldn’t overreact to one game, but we should express a measure of concern that TVO was this ineffective. This is where Lindsay Gottlieb really needs to do some coaching in the coming days and weeks.
KIKI IRIAFEN
Kiki Iriafen showed why she adds so much to this USC team. She can shoot over smaller defenders and has defensive length, but she can also spin, dribble, and get to the rim with creative actions. She was visibly nervous in this game, passing up some easy layups at times and blowing an open layup which fed into Ole Miss’s fourth-quarter rally, but she gathered herself in the last few minutes, making a pile of clutch free throws, including the tiebreaking shots in the final 10 seconds for the win. Iriafen’s value to this team is obvious, and Monday’s game showed why.
THE FRESHMEN
USC has the nation’s top-ranked freshman class. Kennedy Smith and Kayleigh Heckel provided quality minutes for this team and compensated for von Oelhoffen’s poor, foul-plagued performance. The freshmen looked good. It was the veterans who committed most of the big mistakes which almost allowed this game to slip away.
LINDSAY GOTTLIEB
Lindsay Gottlieb is widely acknowledged not just as a good coach overall, but a good offensive coach who provides structure and clarity for her players. Ole Miss and coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin, also known as “Coach Yo,” stake their identity on playing rugged defense and making games ugly for opponents. Coach Yo frankly coached a better game than Gottlieb, but in Gottlieb’s defense, this was the first rodeo for a new roster with new configurations of players, playing in a far-away location which had a body-clock plot twist thrown in. This game started just after 9 a.m. Los Angeles time. This won’t be representative of what we should see from USC for most of the season. It’s not as though this team will panic against good defense in future games — maybe once in a while, but not regularly. No one should be panicking about this opener for USC. Gottlieb, in fact, wants USC to be tested by opponents. Ole Miss was always going to pose problems for the Trojans with its elite defense. Gottlieb now has so much film she can look at, and she will be able to teach this team how to be better at the offensive end of the floor. USC got the win, and yet Gottlieb has so much material she can share with her players. The Trojans could grow a lot from this experience.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: JuJu Watkins, USC women’s basketball survive Ole Miss in Paris
