LOS ANGELES — It’s been nine years since USC women’s basketball has appeared in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. The tournament drought ended this weekend when the Trojans were announced as the No. 8 seed in the Seattle 3 region on Selection Sunday.
“Our hard work is being shown off now,” sophomore Rayah Marshall said. “I feel like our competitive spirit is out there for everyone. We’re turning heads and I’m extremely proud to be a part of it.”
USC (21-9) will play No. 9-seeded South Dakota State (28-5), which beat UCLA in the WNIT semifinals last season and went on to win the tournament, in the first round on March 17 in Blacksburg, Virginia.
It’s the first time USC earned an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament since 2006 and it’s the 17th trip to the tournament overall for the program.
USC players, coaches and supporters packed into Rock & Reilly’s pub in USC Village, anxiously awaiting their seeding on Sunday evening. There were some “boos” when UCLA was announced as a No. 4 seed and some observers jumped ever so slightly when they heard the “U” sound in “Utah” while the regions were continuously announced.
“Honestly I was kind of nervous,” graduate student Kadi Sissoko said. “It’s very exciting. It’s been a minute since I went dancing so I’m really happy for the team and all we’ve accomplished.”
While it’s USC’s first trip in a while to the NCAA Tournament, a few transfer players and coach Lindsay Gottlieb have experience on the national stage.
Sissoko was in the tournament as a freshman with Syracuse and Koi Love made an appearance as a junior with Arizona. Destiny Littleton was a member of last season’s championship team, South Carolina, and made an additional trip in 2022 with the same team and in 2019 with Texas.
“We’ve been through highs and lows but we’ve learned from both of them,” Gottlieb said. “And that’s what gets me the most confidence in our veteran group. Mature, locked in kids who just want to win and stay in this thing for as long as we can.
Gottlieb has now taken three programs to the NCAA Tournament in UC Santa Barbara, California and now USC. She coached Cal in the tournament seven times in eight seasons.
“All the accomplishments we’ve had are thanks to her,” Sissoko said.
USC was projected by ESPN as a No. 8 seed after falling to Oregon State in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament in early March. Sissoko scored a team-high 16 points in the game, making it her fourth game scoring in double-digits.
Marshall pulled down 11 rebounds and had two blocks to bring her career block total to 162, which ties her with Michelle Campbell for fifth-most in program history.
“Every team except one goes home from that tournament disappointed,” Gottlieb said. “How you respond to whatever happened is what’s going to affect later outcomes.”
Gottlieb talked to her team about when they beat Washington State in overtime just prior to the conference tournament and how anything can happen from this point onward in the season.
She also had her team watch the HBO Women of Troy documentary after practice on Saturday, a 2020 film that showcases Cheryl Miller and the USC women’s basketball program in the mid-1980s.
“We watched (it) as a group to really understand what the USC on our chest stands for, the incredible women that have come before us, what this means,” Gottlieb said. “We’re really taking it seriously.”
USC (21-9) vs. South Dakota State (28-5)
When: Friday, March 17; time TBD
Where: Cassell Coliseum, Blacksburg, Virginia