2025-26 Team Preview: USC

I am so impressed with the Indiana Fever.

The WNBA Playoffs are nearing the summit, with the Phoenix Mercury waiting in the finals for its opponent after taking down the No. 1 seed Minnesota Lynx in an absolute battle of a series. Credit to the Mercury for the resilience during various deficits, and either the Fever or Las Vegas Aces are one Game 5 win away from joining them.

As a reminder, the Fever are here without Caitlin Clark, without Sophie Cunningham and Sydney Colson, and without in-season adds Aari McDonald and Chloe Bibby, all of which are out with season-ending injuries. And they have pushed the dang Aces to five games.

What Kelsey Mitchell, Aliyah Boston and co. have done in keeping this team scrappy and difficult to stop is beyond impressive. It almost feels like Stephanie White is back in her wheelhouse after coaching a defensive-minded Connecticut Sun team. Game 5 for that series is tonight, so let’s hope for some fireworks.

Last Week’s Preview (Iowa)

Table of Contents

• 2024-25 Overview

• Departures

• Returnees

• Incoming Players

• Outlook

2024-25 Overview

USC came into last season my preseason No. 1. This was off the back of a promising 23-24 campaign, but more due to a truly unbelievable incoming group of talent. There were multiple highly rated prospects in the Trojans’ freshman class, and it was met with two terrific veteran adds through the transfer portal.

Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb was given one of the most impressive rosters in the country, and she made sure to utilize it.

USC was truly dominant in the regular season. A road loss to Iowa in February was the Trojans’ only defeat since an early November loss to a very good Notre Dame team. That included a pair of victories against in-state rival UCLA to win the Big Ten outright, only for the Bruins to ultimately get their revenge in the conference tournament.

Despite that, the Trojans entered the NCAA Tournament a 1 seed with genuine title aspirations. This team flew up and down the court with the fastest pace in the Big Ten, and still managed to hold opponents below 60 PPG. Teams shot 35.9% from the field, including just 38.6% inside the arc, numbers than ranked 8th and 6th in the NCAA, respectively.

On offense, USC was never the greatest shooting team, but made up for it with elite rebounding and turnover margins (Top 50 nationally in turnover rate and opponent turnover rate). The Trojans were also tremendous at getting to the line (744 FT attempts, 7th in NCAA), and they were equally as strong at converting at 77.3%.

It was near impossible to beat USC at full strength. It was a team that could suffocate opponents while flying down the court for buckets on the other end, all while doing the little things right to avoid any glaring flaws. Threes weren't a strength, but it wasn’t a huge issue either as USC still finished Top 70 nationally in threes made.

USC ultimately fell to the national champion, UConn, in the Elite Eight. It was the closest matchup the Huskies faced in the entire tournament, and the Trojans did it extremely shorthanded. I would have loved to have seen this game with both teams at 100%.

Here's last year’s USC roster, sorted by Her Hoop Stats win shares:

Departures

Eight players leave from last year’s 31-win team, four through the transfer portal.

The two most significant exits came through the WNBA Draft in Kiki Iriafen and Rayah Marshall, a frontcourt duo that was among the best in the nation last season. Iriafen has proven her ability at the WNBA level, and was an extremely crucial secondary scorer behind JuJu Watkins last season. Marshall was also immensely underrated and was one of the best interior defenders in the country. She did a little bit of everything, and also showed what she can bring as a more primary option against UConn, finishing with 23 points and 15 rebounds.

Even more forward talent will need to be replaced without Clarice Akunwafo, who was a consistently excellent defensive big that saw limited action for the Trojans. She joins guard Talia von Oelhoffen, who had a solid but underwhelming lone season with USC, as the two non-WNBA graduates.

As far as the transfers go, the losses of Avery Howell and Kayleigh Heckel could end up hurting down the line. Howell and Heckel both really started to shine toward the end of their freshman seasons, with Howell specifically really coming into her own as an offensive weapon. USC will be seeing her in Big Ten play, while Heckel will actually join the team that eliminated them in UConn. Both are former five-stars with a whole lot of potential to keep building upon.

Returnees

Of course, we must start this section with the latest news on the returning National Player of the Year. Watkins announced this week that she will not be returning at any point this next season. It’s not necessarily a stunning result after Watkins tore her ACL in the Round of 32, but it’s certainly a blow to USC’s potential ceiling for this year.

So, where do the Trojans pick up the pieces? It probably starts with their other five-star guard, rising sophomore Kennedy Smith. Smith’s offensive output never flew off the page last season next to Watkins and Iriafen, but her impact was clearly felt on defense, where she was a tenacious guard that looked like anything but a first-year player.

With no Watkins this season, Smith could step up in a big way statistically. She’s a capable three-point shooter with similar size (Watkins is 6-2, Smith is 6-1), and her volume is likely to increase dramatically with this new-look roster. Watch for her potential to really show in year two.

The rest of USC’s returnees are extremely unproven, but hold high potential because of how well Gottlieb has recruited in recent memory. Malia Samuels is the lone player with multiple years of experience, but did not see a significant amount of action in either season. She was a highly ranked four-star and has shown some promise as a perimeter shooter and facilitator with a career 1.63 assist-to-turnover ratio thus far.

Vivian Iwuchukwu and Laura Williams are the only returning bigs, and just Iwuchukwu has in-game experience. Both, like Samuels, were four-star prospects with lots of potential, and now they will get a real opportunity to show their development. It’s the same story for Rian Forestier and Brooklyn Shamblin who were part of that same nasty 2024 signing class. Forestier had some eye-popping high school numbers (25.8 PPG, 13.9 RPG) that have me intrigued for what this season could bring.

Incoming Players

It’s not the nine-name monstrosity that the 2024 signees were, but this six-player haul is filled with talent that should be able to help USC stay toward the top of the standings, even without the best player in the country.

The lone freshman signing just so happens to be the top prospect in the country. Jazzy Davidson seems to be the whole package: She averaged 14.6 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 3.9 APG and 3.0 SPG at the FIBA U19 World Cup for Team USA and is a rangy guard who, like Smith, could be an excellent short-term replacement for Watkins in the lineup. The No. 1 ranking should speak for itself, but she’s going to be a monster so fast for USC, especially with the circumstantial opening that has opened up for her.

USC wasn’t satisfied with simply having two five-star underclassmen leading the way at guard, so they went and got one of the best guards in the portal with Georgia Tech’s Kara Dunn. Dunn was the leading scorer of a very good Tech team, and is an efficient scorer from just about anywhere. She’s also a strong rebounder and defender which should fit in well with the Trojans mold.

The final guard acquisition is Londynn Jones, who will be crossing enemy lines to do so. Jones played USC three times last season and is a strong three-point shooter, something the Trojans could really use. Both Jones and Dunn add great experience to the talent that already existed in the backcourt.

USC’s ceiling could depend on what it is able to get out of its forward room, which makes someone like Gerda Raulusaityte so intriguing to me. This will be her first year of collegiate basketball, but she was an MVP caliber player in Lithuania. She has a significant amount of experience overseas to build on, and I think she could be a sneakily massive signing for a team in need of talent at the position.

Dayana Mendes is a most straightforward get, but is a big one all the same. She had a very promising first season at Washington State and also has youth overseas experience playing in France. This is an important add both for this year, but Mendes feels like someone to really watch for down the line as she continues to develop.

Finally, Yakiya Milton never cracked the core rotation for Auburn, but now has a golden fresh start opportunity on a great team in need of big production. She showed the most potential as a shot-blocker and is USC’s tallest player at 6-5. She could at least gain a role similar to Akunwafo’s and be a defensive option off the bench for Gottlieb to use in certain matchups.

Outlook

Projected Starters

• Jazzy Davidson - G

• Londynn Jones - G

• Kara Dunn - G

• Kennedy Smith - G

• Gerda Raulusaityte - F

Big Ten Finish: 5th

Even without Watkins for the entire season, USC has oodles and oodles of talent to work through, I’m just excited to see how Lindsay Gottlieb decides to use it.

Davidson, Dunn and Smith feel like no-doubt starters. Dunn and Smith’s production speaks for itself, as does Davidson’s recruiting ranking. I just don’t see how the No. 1 prospect in the nation sits for a USC team in this position.

I am enamored by Raulusaityte’s international résumé and expect her to earn a starting role because of it. I could see USC going with a more traditional lineup and also starting Mendes, but Jones has 60 starts and 108 games of experience for UCLA, and I think her perimeter shooting could be of major use to this lineup.

The roster breakdown for the Trojans is really simple: This backcourt is disgustingly good, both with experience and untapped potential. It should be a ton of fun to watch Davidson this season, and bringing in Jones and Dunn rounds it into a truly elite group once again.

Then there’s the frontcourt, which is much less proven and has plenty of notable question marks. Someone like Iwuchukwu or Williams could surprise here in year two and help the shape of the room, but for now, this is the area that gives me the most hesitation about the Trojans moving forward.

Most Big Ten teams would not be able to lose its unquestioned best player for an entire season and remain in the Top Five, but that’s the level of faith I have in the roster that the Trojans have assembled. Of course this team wants JuJu back and would be better for it, but a year like this could also make this team an outrageously dangerous contender for 26-27 when Watkins returns to a team much more experienced and ready for a run.

That’s not to call this season a wash for USC, not in the slightest. There’s a team in here that, behind the budding stars of Davidson and Smith, becomes even more versatile and equally defensively imposing as it was in 2024-25. This roster can still host games in the NCAA Tournament and compete for a Sweet 16 and beyond, especially if the forwards impress more than anticipated.

USC lost a transcendent superstar before the season has even began, and yet I feel extremely optimistic for where this team is headed. This year can still bring a lot of wins and general success, and it can be done with most of the outside pressure off the team’s shoulders.

Photo Credit: USC Women’s Basketball (@USCWBB), Twitter

If you are interested in more Big Ten women’s basketball content like this, you can subscribe with the button at the top or bottom of the post, or share it with the button below. Thanks!