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SPOKANE, Wash. — When Rayah Marshall and Clarice Akunwafo came to USC in 2021, the Trojans were in a rut. The pair of top-30 recruits committed to a program that hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament in seven years.Coach Lindsay Gottlieb’s arrival brought some hope, but signs of progress were slow. USC drew just more than 1,000 people at its home arena only five times that season. The shining moment of that campaign came in January, when the Trojans upset then-No. 4 Arizona, the national title runner-up from the previous year, in a game played in front of no fans due to the omicron wave of the coronavirus. Nevertheless, it became a reference point.
“I grabbed those two and said, ‘Hey, enjoy this. At some point, we are going to be that team that other people are trying to beat,’” Gottlieb said.
Her freshmen weren’t so sure. Akunwafo remembers being confused, and Marshall’s reaction in the moment was filled with skepticism: “Yo, is that woman okay?”
Three years later, Gottlieb fulfilled her promise. The top-seeded Trojans may have fallen short of their ultimate goal in 2025 with their 78-64 Elite Eight loss to second-seeded UConn, but they were the team the Huskies had to beat to get to the Final Four. From the start of this season, USC was the hunted, the opponent other teams circled on their calendars as a measuring stick or launching pad.
“Me and Coach G joke all the time, my games freshman year, (they) looked like a closed scrimmage,” Marshall said during the first weekend of the tournament. “I could literally hear my mom screaming in the crowd. Now, I have a hard time locating her, and honestly, I love that problem for me. I love that for our team. I love the culture change that we had.”
The rapid transformation is almost unbelievable for the two players who have been here for all of it, but it’s real. They created a culture of winning that didn’t exist before their arrival, and set a standard that makes a second consecutive Elite Eight appearance a disappointment.
The Trojans started the season ranked No. 3 nationally. They expected to get further than they did last season — to reach the Final Four and potentially beyond. Even without JuJu Watkins for the majority of the last three games, USC played to win.
No one embodied that culture more than Marshall. In her final college game against the Huskies, Marshall scored a career-best 23 points (her previous high was 15) and tied a career-high with 15 rebounds. A 6-foot-3 center, she protected the rim and was USC’s best source of offense, finishing lobs over the top. But she also defended at the top of the Trojans’ press and brought up the ball on occasion. She scored on jumpers and drives to both sides of the basket.
“I’m so proud of how she ended her college career in Rayah fashion, getting a double-double and playing phenomenally,” Kiki Iriafen said. “She truly is the epitome of USC women’s basketball, and her and Clarice have set the culture. They’ve been here when the program was just building. And now we expect to win. So it makes this loss very tough, but I feel like they’ve really set the tone for this program.”
That is the bar USC will look to clear moving forward. The personnel will look different. Watkins is likely to miss most of next season as she recovers from a season-ending knee injury. Marshall and Akunwafo — who Gottlieb called “maybe the most formidable defensive frontcourt in the country” — are graduating, along with transfers Iriafen and Talia von Oelhoffen.
The Trojans will enter 2025-26 with the most talented sophomore class in the country. Kennedy Smith, Avery Howell and Kayleigh Heckel all performed on the postseason stage, with Smith earning all-regional honors after a dominant performance on both ends in the Sweet 16 win over Kansas State. They have earned big-game experience, dating all the way back to the Big Ten regular season when USC was neck and neck with UCLA for the conference title.
The nation’s third-ranked high school player, Jazzy Davidson, is also coming aboard. Another big guard, Davidson rounds out an elite perimeter group that will give the Trojans multiple scoring options and the ability to smother opposing teams defensively.
USC will have to go portal hunting for frontcourt reinforcements. Rising sophomores Vivian Iwuchukwu and Laura Williams are the only returning bigs, and the Trojans will need a superior starting center to maintain their defensive identity. Sa’Myah Smith of LSU and Serah Williams of Wisconsin, listed at 6-2 and 6-4, respectively, appear to be ideal candidates to step into the starting lineup in Los Angeles.
Whoever makes the move won’t have to be sold on a vision of USC like Marshall and Akunwafo were. They can point to the tangible success the Trojans have achieved, with three straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, two conference titles (one tournament and one regular season) and back-to-back appearances in the regional final.
Gottlieb went out on a limb and exerted her leverage as an NBA assistant coach when she committed to USC. She commanded additional investment and material improvements (upgrades in the locker room and the athletic training staff, among them) for women’s basketball, knowing that the support would help get the Trojans to this point. They haven’t achieved what she dreamed of, but it’s still more than what Gottlieb’s initial recruits could have imagined when they took a chance on her.
“It’s crazy how it literally has been a whole 180 turn from freshman year to senior year,” Akunwafo said.
With Watkins, perhaps USC could have cleared that hurdle in 2025, but the Trojans didn’t have enough star power to overcome a great UConn team. To the outside world, they over-achieved by getting to this point without the superstar. In their eyes, the next transformation is yet to come.
“I’m disappointed for everyone involved in our program to not be (in Tampa), but I think when I just take a little time and — I’ll still be so crushed for JuJu and the game because that just wasn’t supposed to happen like that,” Gottlieb said. “But I also think, I have no doubt that her comeback’s going to be legendary, and I have no doubt that the strength of the program is not in doubt, and I think we proved that.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
USC Trojans, Women's College Basketball, Women's NCAA Tournament
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