When Los Angeles hosts two of the most significant non-conference games of the early season this weekend, the city of stars will take its turn as the epicenter of women’s college basketball. The city’s big programs have had such a strong influence on the game’s landscape since the 1970s and 1980s.
For the first time in 20 years, the city’s two premier collegiate programs, USC and UCLA, concluded the previous season tied for the top 10 in the Associated Press’s final poll. For the first time since 1982, both of them placed in the top 10 of the AP preseason poll after becoming stronger through the offseason transfer portal.
On their home courts, they will each be put to the ultimate test in relation to those rankings. UCLA (4-0) plays No. 1 South Carolina (4-0) at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday (4 p.m. ET, FS1), while USC (4-0) meets No. 6 Notre Dame (4-0) at the sold-out Galen Center on Saturday (4 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock).
All four teams have rosters full of championship-caliber players, Player of the Year contenders, and potential WNBA players. When Tampa hosts the 2025 Final Four in April, it’s possible that the four will be back in the same city.
With a 43-game winning streak going into the match, South Carolina, led by sophomore forward Chloe Kitts, is the clear favorite to repeat. Under head coach Dawn Staley, the Gamecocks have won three NCAA titles and are now experiencing a dynastic run.
However, the brightest light lives in Los Angeles, where JuJu Watkins put the Trojans back on the map four years after Cheryl Miller and twenty years after USC legend Lisa Leslie. Miller led the Trojans to back-to-back titles in 1983–84, while Leslie was the final USC player to lead a top-10 team. The sophomore Watkins could potentially surpass Caitlin Clark’s Division I women’s scoring record and became the fourth-fastest player in NCAA history to reach 1,000 career points.
In the 44 years after the NCAA took over control of women’s athletics from the AIAW, UCLA has had the most steady success of any L.A. school. With a record-breaking attendance and the first-ever broadcast AIAW title game, Ann Meyers-Drysdale guided the Bruins to a historic 1978 AIAW national championship at home in Los Angeles. However, they have never made it to the NCAA Final Four.
With victories in 2001 and 2018 under previous head coach Muffet McGraw, Notre Dame has nine titles to its record. Niele Ivey, who played or served as an assistant coach in each of them, kept honoring the school’s history of exceptional guards, including her. Together, Olivia Miles, Hannah Hidalgo, and Sonia Citron form one of the top backcourts in the nation.
Recent results: Notre Dame is 8-2 in the series, but the Fighting Irish haven’t faced each other since their victory in the Bahamas on November 25, 2011. The last victory for USC came on November 24, 2006, at home.
Headliners: Watkins, a native of Los Angeles, is the season’s face and a generational talent, only surpassed by UConn’s East Coast standout Paige Bueckers. This season, she doesn’t have to shoulder the majority of the scoring load because she is a three-level scorer with size, talent, and strength (although her 21.5 points per game still ranks 23rd). She also excels defensively, finishing in the top 10 in blocks (3) and thefts (3.8) per game. Senior forward Kiki Iriafen averages 17.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, making her a WNBA lottery possibility.
Notre Dame will follow its guards, and thus far, things are going rather well. In their first season together, guards Miles (18.3 ppg, 8 rpg, 6.8 apg) and Hidalgo (25 ppg, 5.3 spg) are playing well off one another, hitting at least 50% from the field and 47.4% from three.
The storyline: This is Notre Dame’s first big game of the season, and the Trojans were put to the test right away against then-No. 20 Ole Miss in the Aflac Oui-Play Game in Paris. Their top-10 offenses score over 90 points a game on average, a stat that will decline in conference play. Both will perform better in March than in November and are still establishing chemistry around important frontcourt transfers.
Despite having the backcourt advantage, Notre Dame is also dealing with a persistent injury problem that has severely damaged their returning forwards, Kylee Watson and Maddy Westbeld. 6-foot-5 freshman big Kate Koval is still getting used to playing collegiate basketball, and graduate transfer Liatu King (17.7 ppg, 73.5 FG%) missed the most recent game due to concussion protocol. Following Ole Miss’ example, the Fighting Irish defense will probably try to shut down everyone in Watkins’ immediate vicinity, making the sophomore carry the team alone.
Recent performances: South Carolina has won the NCAA tournament in 2022–2023 and is 4-1 overall in the series.
Headliners: South Carolina’s unanswered issue about who would succeed WNBA lottery choice Kamilla Cardoso and carry on the program’s tradition of successful posts has been answered by Kitts (14 ppg, 6 rpg). A deep roster is led by guards MiLaysia Fulwiley, who averages 12.8 points per game and shoots 45.6 FG% off the bench, and Te-Hina Paopao, a fifth-year senior and WNBA first-round prospect who averages 13.4 points per game (51.8 FG%, 40.9 3FG%).
Lauren Betts, a junior center, leads UCLA’s offense, which is ranked in the top 25. The first-round prospect is averaging 11.5 rpg (14) and a career-best 21.5 ppg (23) (23rd in DI). With a shooting percentage of 72.2%, which presently places her in 25th place but is eight percentage points higher than her 11th-place DI performance from the previous year, she is among the most productive posts in the nation. Both transfer Charlisse Leger-Walker, who has not yet played, and junior guard Kiki Rice, who missed the first three games but played 11 minutes in her debut against Arkansas, are missing valuable minutes for the Bruins. Rice is “expecting” to play against South Carolina, according to head coach Cori Close.
The plot: With No. 2 Connecticut’s talent and potential, a loss would undoubtedly knock the Gamecocks out of first place, and South Carolina’s program-best winning streak is on the line. Compared to last year, when the youthful group of first-time NCAA starting shocked early, they have had a clumsy start as the favorites. The forwards-by-committee, Kitts (6-2), Ashlyn Watkins (6-3), and No. 2-ranked recruit Joyce Edwards (6-3), will face the 6-7 Betts in their first significant test of size. Although she is recovering from an injury and only played 14 minutes in redshirt freshman season, the 6-5 Adhel Tac, who was an early enrollee in January 2024, is the great forward in waiting.
The first test for UCLA’s defense (32.3 opponent FG%) will be to stop all of South Carolina’s shooters. It’s nearly tough to defeat the Gamecocks when they can shoot from three, and the Bruins haven’t been strong at stopping opponents’ threes. To assist them maintain the scoring tempo, Timea Gardiner, a junior transfer from Oregon State, and Elina Aarnisalo, a freshman, are dangerous 3-point shooters.
