So, what is a murderers’ row? USC women’s basketball knows.

In traditional journalism, we are told to avoid cliches or common phrases — though this column has perhaps broken that more than a few times — so we can be more specific and avoid potential interpretation differences. Yet, “murderers’ row” is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot, which I often dispute.

SEC football — only if Alabama, the band, says so. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup — my co-editor, Bennett Christofferson, low-key clocked last week. Mountain Pacific Sports Federation West water polo — perhaps the understatement of the century, but that’s for my next column.

For a brief history lesson, the term was first coined in a sports context to describe the 1927 New York Yankees lineup. You know, just a light, little team that scored over 400 runs more than their opponents.

Ruth, Gehrig, Combs, Lazzeri, Meusel and more! All five of those greats were launching homers in a dead-ball era, driving in ridiculous amounts of runs, and winning, winning and, well, more winning.

However, I think former St. Louis Browns pitcher Ernie Wingard, who had the second-worst ERA in 1927 and got smacked around four separate times by the murderers’ row, would gladly step back to the mound rather than face preseason No. 18 USC women’s basketball’s nonconference schedule.

If No. 1 UConn is Ruth and No. 2 South Carolina is Gehrig, the combination of No. 9 NC State and No. 15 Notre Dame should account for the remaining three. Though it is just an early conference game, the first team off The Associated Press’ Top 25 in Washington should count for something — finals week wouldn’t have started, and UConn is the week after.

Oh, and don’t you dare forget Cal Poly! 

Ignoring that last one, my first thought would be that Snoop Dogg questioned the wrong USC head coach last week. But I high-key like Lindsay Gottlieb as a coach too much to say that. She’s just confident, and unexpectedly JuJu-Watkins-less.

“Bring it on,” Gottlieb said during Big Ten Basketball Media Days.

While Gottlieb said she had Watkins in mind when planning the schedule, especially the Notre Dame and UConn home-and-homes that the Trojans split last season, she hasn’t appeared fazed by the thought of taking on an even more difficult schedule.

And to think one of my women’s basketball beat writers said Monday that Watkins’ injury was the only storyline going into the season. Now, they were right to say she was a storyline, but anyone would be sorely mistaken to say JuJu is the only thing women’s basketball has going for it — though without her, its rise might’ve taken a lot longer.

While there are, of course, still some filler games, Gottlieb’s mission is clear: to become the premier women’s basketball program in the country. Even former NBA Head Coach Eric Musselman, now USC’s men’s basketball coach, told me in September he admired what Gottlieb was doing and wanted a Watkins-esque force of his own. 

JuJu is a catalyst, and a great one at that, not the reason.

Kennedy Smith? Gottlieb’s pick for best defender in the country. Watkins? Doesn’t need any words. Jazzy Davidson? Per Gottlieb: “alpha” and “really elite.” Saniyah Hall? Sitaya Fagan? What’s next.

It’s like Gottlieb doesn’t know how to miss, or at least take a break. With Smith and Davidson on the watchlist for the Naismith Player of the Year Award, which Watkins won last year, Hall and Fagan stand as just two pillars of what’s to come. And that volume of quality commits isn’t an accident.

“[USC is] obviously a great basketball program, but [there are] just great people in the program and running the program,” Davidson said in a February Daily Trojan feature when asked about committing to USC. “It felt like home.” 

Whether the Trojans beat UConn and South Carolina or not, the longtime hotshot and the recent standout may be begging Gottlieb for anything they can take in a year or two. And, by the way, Watkins will almost assuredly be back next year.

But next year is not this year, and the Trojans still stand one soldier down, surrounded by the enemy.

In last year’s pre-murderers’ row, USC narrowly escaped a ranked Ole Miss team and upset UConn on the road — though the Huskies would get revenge in the Elite Eight — but they got thumped by Notre Dame at Galen Center. 

The question ahead for Gottlieb and company is not whether they can win any individual game because, outside of UConn, specifically in the Elite Eight, there isn’t much precedent to say that. The question is whether they can maintain consistency, especially with young players projected to take big roles, to win them all. 

After I traveled with football — the last Trojan squad to head to South Bend, Indiana — and watched them lose in devastating fashion, I can’t expect any difference, though I think another UConn upset and a statement win over NC State feel about right. I’m predicting that the game against South Carolina at Crypto.com Arena will be the best game of the year — and a critical one, should USC want to win it all without its marquee piece.

For your convenience: NC State: noon, Nov. 9, ESPN or radio; South Carolina: 6 p.m., Nov. 15, Crypto.com arena, Los Angeles, Fox or radio; Notre Dame: 3 p.m., Nov. 21, ESPN or radio; UConn: 2:30 p.m., Dec. 13, Galen Center, Fox or radio.

To quote Gottlieb, bring it on.

Sean Campbell is a sophomore writing about all facets of USC sports in a voice- and reference-heavy style in his column, “A Wannabe Sports Writer,” which runs every other Wednesday. He is also a sports editor at the Daily Trojan.