Incoming basketball player named to national team

The Trojan’s women’s basketball team will be adding some serious firepower this year in their freshman class. After last year’s 19-13 season, which was riddled with suspensions, the team looks to reload and refocus on a new year.

One of the largest assets for the team as it looks ahead will be incoming freshman Valerie Higgins. A 6-foot-one wing player with a 98 percent grade scouting report from ESPN, Higgins was looked at by scouts from high-caliber programs like the University of Louisville, the University of Texas, Oregon State and West Virginia before selecting USC. And this summer, she’s landed yet another accomplishment to prove the depth, experience and talent that she will provide to the Trojans roster — a spot on the USA Under-18 National Team.

Higgins received the call-up to play in the red, white and blue on May 31, when the national team released its Under-18 roster for the 2016 FIBA Americas U-18 Championships in Chile this July. The call-up came after a weekend spent in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where Higgins was invited to compete alongside 30 other young hopefuls for a spot on the roster.

The invitation to try out was a testament enough to the incoming freshman’s promise. But the call-up set Higgins apart. As one of only two new players added to the roster this summer, Higgins will join 11 other players to represent the top elite players in America. U-18 players go on to play in the WNBA and the Olympics, and typically stud the starting rosters of powerhouse programs. Past rosters boast names such as Baylor’s Brittney Griner and the University of Connecticut’s Breanna Stewart. This year, Higgins will be adding her name to the list.

“It means the world, honestly,” Higgins said. “Coming out here to the trials, even getting invited is such an honor, and now making the team is even a bigger honor. All the girls that made it are so deserving and it’s just an exciting opportunity.”

And she will start her career with the U-18 team during an important summer for the American team. The FIBA Americas championships, which take place in Chile this summer, determine the top teams on the North and South American continents. Competition is always fierce, particularly because it determines who can compete in the FIBA world championships, which serve as the world cup for international basketball.

Higgins will return to Colorado Springs from July 2 to July 8, spending Independence Day training to represent her country. She will then leave with the team to compete in Chile from July 13 to 17, where they hope to take home yet another U-18 gold medal.

This recent accomplishment is only one of many accolades that make Higgins a valuable addition to the Trojans’ roster this year. A graduate of the Chaminade College Preparatory School in Los Angeles, California, Higgins was on the Naismith Watch List for the majority of her scouting time in high school.

Reports by ESPN regard her as a “complete perimeter performer,” describing Higgins’ role as a versatile and unique. Higgins boasts a dangerous outside shot and is considered one of the most versatile small forwards of her class. But her main strengths comes in transition offense and in her ability to handle and pass the ball.

Described often as “unselfish,” Higgins creates a threat due to her high percentage from the arc. Yet she’ll choose to dish to an open teammate just as often as she’ll drive to the hoop, which stretches defenses to their limits and creates just as many opportunities for fellow players. Her ESPN scouting report after the Nike Nationals last year declared her a “coveted glue-player that raises the bar for her teammates.”

For the Trojans, it means a whole new jolt of energy to an offense that lost critical momentum last year after the suspension of then-junior Jordan Adams and then-senior Brianna Barrett due to academic ineligibilities. Although Barrett, an explosive guard, graduated last year, Adams will return to the team to fill the guard position and provide expertise at the helm of the offense.

In turn, this will create relief for senior Courtney Jaco, who was formerly the key shooting guard for the team. Similar to Higgins, Jaco can deliver from behind the arc while also creating options for her teammates through assists. Last year’s ineligibilities, however, forced Jaco to take on the role of the point guard, a position she had never filled before. This meant that the then-junior shouldered a leadership position for the team, changing the way she handled the ball and fit into the offense.

Jaco rose to the occasion, coming alive as a leader at point, but it meant that she had less opportunities to heat up from 3-point range and to contribute points to the team. With Adams back in the rotation and Higgins’ shooting stretching the defense, Jaco will be in the perfect position to use last year’s experience to lead her team into creating a well-oiled machine of an offense.

And Higgins isn’t the only addition to this year’s roster. Last week, the team also added transfer Ivana Jakubcova. The 6-foot-6 center will be the tallest player in USC women’s basketball history since WNBA star and gold medalist Monica Lamb played for the Trojans in 1987. Jakubcova will have big shoes to fill in the place of graduate transfer center Temi Fagbenle, who led the Trojans in almost every statistic last year and notched 10 double-doubles on the season.

The addition of Jakubcova, who played at Murray State and Kentucky before suffering an injury, will add depth to the team in the coming year. As the new school year nears, the team has all of the pieces put together. Now, it’s up to head coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke to get them working in time for the season’s tip off in November.