Over the summer, USC Trojans coach Lindsay Gottlieb scheduled a Zoom with her seven incoming freshmen and their families. The program was fresh off its best season in decades, led by star JuJu Watkins, who’d just taken them to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1994. Gottlieb wanted her newcomers to know that should be only the beginning. “The bar has been raised,” she told her freshmen class. It was their job now to help meet it.
They did not imagine doing it like this. But less than a week after National Player of the Year contender Watkins was ruled out for the tournament with a torn ACL, that freshman class sent No. 1 seed USC back in the Elite Eight, winning 67–61 over the No. 5 seed Kansas State Wildcats. This is not the same team as it would be with Watkins. But it’s out to prove that it can still be a very capable one. That’s due in large part to its gang of freshmen.
