Juju Watkins shined in her debut season. Now, she and a loaded USC eye a national title.

LOS ANGELES — When the clock hit zero at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, last March, Southern California head coach Lindsay Gottlieb knew things weren’t going to be the same.

Yes, the Trojans fell to Connecticut, the season was finished and they fell one step short of their first trip to the Final Four since 1986. But the moment her team walked toward the locker room, Gottlieb knew the bar had officially been raised.

USC women’s basketball was back, and ready to become one of the powerhouse schools in the sport once again.

“The bar is now high, and we want to be one of the best teams in the country,” Gottlieb said.

It’s been quite the rise for USC as Gottlieb enters her fourth season at the helm. The team showed progress in her first two seasons, going from 12-16 in Year 1 to 21-10 and earning its first NCAA berth in nine years in 2023.

Yet few saw how far the Trojans would go last season. Gottlieb signed the best high school prospect in the country - local prodigy JuJu Watkins –but USC was picked to finish sixth in a loaded Pac-12. Instead, they won 29 games – the most since 1985-86 – won the Pac-12 Conference tournament for the first time in 10 years and were a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

None of it would have been possible without Watkins. She scored 32 points in her first game – a school record for a freshman’s debut – in an upset win over Ohio State. She scored a school-record 51 points against Stanford, had 14 games scoring at least 30 points, set the national record for scoring by a freshman with 920 points and her 27.1 points per game was second in the country behind Caitlin Clark.

JuJu Watkins meeting her high expectations

It may have just been one season, but the high expectations Watkins started her career with are already coming into fruition.

“When I decided to commit, it was to kind of bring that winning legacy back and that excitement around USC women's basketball and LA basketball in general,” Watkins said. “It's just been really, really exciting to see it all come together.”

After the stellar season, it’s easy to see why Watkins is a preseason All-American, the 2024-25 Big Ten coaches preseason player of the year and a favorite to win the national player of the year award.

Gottlieb joked the biggest challenge she has when it comes to Watkins is figuring out what she wants her star to get her for Christmas, considering she’s also dominated the name, image and likeness game. Watkins has deals with companies like Gatorade, AT&T and reportedly signed a multiyear contract extension with Nike that is one of the richest shoe deals in women's basketball.

With so much attention and the game to back it up, Watkins certainly is a contender to be the biggest star in the sport now that Clark has moved on to the WNBA.

“She's certainly going to be one of the prominent faces of the women's college game this year,” ESPN analyst and Basketball Hall of Famer Rebecca Lobo said. “There's a lot to be excited about in women's college basketball, and I think certainly JuJu is one of the players that people are really eager to see.”

Watkins said she spent much of the offseason working on her left hand, and Gottlieb added she’s become more of a vocal leader for the team while continuing to manipulate defenses.

And yes, she’s still working on her scoring. Whenever the team gets a break during practice, you’ll often see Watkins still on the court getting shots up.

“Nothing she does surprises me anymore,” Gottlieb said of Watkins. “JuJu makes it easy because she puts this team, she puts basketball, she puts me, she puts USC above anything individual for her, she really does.

“She's a 19-year-old who's just focused on winning and focused on helping me and this team build towards excellence.”

USC expects to benefit from influx of talent

Outside of Watkins, only one starter returns in Rayah Marshall, but Gottlieb did load up the roster. She brought in Kiki Iriafen, the Pac-12 most improved player last season with Stanford, and two-time all-Pac-12 team member Talia von Oelhoffen from Oregon State as part of one of the country's best transfer portal hauls. Gottlieb said they were critical additions because not only do they bring in a veteran ability to lead alongside Watkins, but they come from successful teams.

On the high school recruiting side, Gottlieb added six players in ESPN’s top 100 recruits, highlighted by five-star recruits Kennedy Smith, Kayleigh Heckel and Avery Howell. A blend of new and experienced is what Gottlieb hopes is the perfect recipe for success.

“We have a number of pieces. I think versatility will be a thing for us,” Gottlieb said. “We're younger than people think. I'm playing a couple of freshmen in significant roles, and at the same time, we have some really good veterans.”

Iriafen and von Oelhoffen have meshed well with Watkins. Iriafen said Watkins “brings in excellence around her” and they’re always looking for each other on the court.

“There's so many great players around me, so I'm kind of playing off of them as well,” she said. “You can expect anybody to go out there and get a bucket. You're not just relying on two people or three people.”

A potential new star could be Smith. She played at Etiwanda High School in Rancho Cucamonga and played against Watkins in high school, and now she enters in a role similar to her now-teammate. Gottlieb and Watkins spoke highly of Smith with the expectation for her to get significant playing time. The word that comes up when talking about her?

“Dawg,” Watkins said.

USC embracing the ‘target on our back’

All the great teams in every sport set the expectation to be champions by the end of the season. However, it’s rare for them to speak about it publicly, usually opting to go with the “take it one game at a time” approach.

But that’s not the case with these Trojans.

From the coaching staff to the players, they know the expectation is to win the school’s first national championship since 1984, and they aren’t shy about their chase toward glory.

“There's just a sense of urgency to go further than where we went last year,” Watkins said.

USC starts the season at No. 3 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, the favorite to win the Big Ten in its first season in the league, earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA women's tournament and reach the Final Four.

Plenty of eyes will get to see USC’s march. Not only do the Trojans open the college basketball season in Paris against Mississippi in an ESPN televised game Monday, more than half of the schedule will be aired nationwide. That’s in addition to the several NIL deals players have secured.

So with the spotlight shining brightly in Los Angeles, the Trojans welcome the challenge.

“Our stage has been elevated for all of us. We haven't shied away from any expectations. We understand that comes with a lot of responsibility,” Gottlieb said. “Everything's a big stage, and we got to be ready. There's definitely a target on our back.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: JuJu Watkins, USC chase women's basketball title with loaded team