USC women’s basketball is set to kick off after a long offseason of unprecedented buildup. All eyes have been on the Trojans as they’ve built continuous hype heading into the 2023 season. For the first time in 12 years, USC was given a preseason placement, landing No. 21 in both the Associated Press and USA Today preseason rankings. 

The Trojans are coming off their first NCAA appearance since 2014 and boast a strong assortment of new and returning talent. USC lost seven players from last season, three of which were starters, but has filled those holes with seven highly touted newcomers. 

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Returning junior center Rayah Marshall will look to have another dominant season. Last year, she became the first Trojan since Tina Thompson during the 96-97 season to average a double-double, averaging 12.7 points and 11.5 rebounds. On the defensive end, Marshall carries a 51-game streak with at least one block and comes into the season as a member of both the All-Pac-12 Team and the All-Pac-12 Defensive Team.

Returning senior guard Kayla Williams also looks to pick up where she left off last season. She started in all 31 games, leading the team in steals with 48 and being second in assists. 

In anticipation of the season, Williams expressed the work put in over the summer, meshing the team’s new personnel.

“The huge thing is chemistry. We spend a lot of time together,” Williams said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “We practice together, we build that chemistry [and] you build those connections. I think we mesh together really well, and I think that’ll come out on the court.” 

This year, the Trojans will have three top Ivy League players on their court. Graduate forward Kaitlyn Davis brings much experience from her time at Columbia. Davis started in all 34 games and averaged 13.6 points alongside 8.3 rebounds. 

Graduate guard McKenzie Forbes comes to USC having started 31 of 32 games at Harvard, averaging 13.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists for the Crimson. 

Graduate guard Kayla Padilla adds another offensive threat for the Trojans, averaging 17.7 points per game during her senior year at the University of Pennsylvania. 

“The team is overall super excited,” freshman guard Malia Samuels said. “We’re obviously a new team. So there’s a lot of excitement, and there’s a lot of expectation, but I think there’s not really any pressure for us. I just think we need to go out there.”

With the assortment of new and returning talent, third-year Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb has focused on building chemistry within the new-look Trojans. Filling holes left by the players who graduated has been critical in the offseason.

“There’s still a differential between teams that return everybody,” Gottlieb said. “ We have more interchangeable parts and versatility like our guard play is dynamic, and I’ve got to work on combinations that make sense and the ability to play in flow and not control everything but still make sure that we’re executing at a high level.”

The Trojans created shockwaves last November when they landed the No. 1 recruit in the country, freshman guard JuJu Watkins. Last year at Sierra Canyon, Watkins averaged 27.5 points, 13.7 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 2.5 steals and 1.7 blocks per game en route to a California Intercollegiate Federation Title in Southern California’s top division. Watkins was also Co-MVP at the 2023 McDonald’s All-American Game and the Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year. With all eyes on her, Gottlieb has embraced the opportunity to coach a recruit of Watkins’ notoriety. 

“I’ve never had a star the magnitude of JuJu,” Gottlieb said. “It’s a great responsibility to kind of help her maximize everything she can be on and off the court and to use the relationship to also allow her to feel comfortable to be a normal freshman, [to] not  have the weight of the world on her shoulders.” 

On the heels of incoming stars and returning veteran talent, the hype that USC basketball has built over the last year is arguably the most excitement the program has ever garnered. 

“This is the start of a different era of USC women’s basketball,” Gottlieb said. “I want kids to look at us and react the way that people react when you say [University of Connecticut] women’s basketball. That takes time. It takes building something year in and year out. It takes work, but that’s where we want to get to. We want to really build something of significance.”