USC womens basketball looks to regroup in NCAA…
Earlier this week, the USC ladies’s basketball workforce delivered important news about its postseason destiny.
Jazzy Davidson was back.
The star freshman’s return after struggling a shoulder injury in the Big Ten Tournament was far more essential than where the workforce was seeded or who it performed in the opening spherical of the NCAA Tournament.
USC guard Jazzy Davidson (proper) suffered a shoulder injury in the Big Ten Tournament, but she is anticipated to play in the NCAA Tournament. AP
With Davidson cleared to play, the Trojans have a likelihood to go on a run.
She’s been maybe the best freshman in the nation this season, her array of playmaking expertise serving to her workforce face up to the loss of injured celebrity JuJu Watkins.
Davidson was clearly at less than full strength the remainder of the sport after injuring her shoulder early in the Trojans’ loss to Washington in the Big Ten Tournament. That setback was USC’s fourth straight defeat, dropping its seeding and raising considerations about its means to succeed in the postseason.
Coach Lindsay Gottlieb said there was no common theme in those losses, pinpointing what had gone unsuitable in each one.
Turnovers had been the big drawback during a highway loss against then-No. 10 Ohio State.
Three days later, Penn State guard Kiyomi McMiller “went nutso” — Gottlieb’s phrases — by scoring 40 factors to help her workforce beat the Trojans.
In its ultimate home sport, USC misplaced by 23 factors to second-ranked UCLA, and there was no disgrace in that margin given the standard of the opponent.
Perhaps most regarding was the range of issues that went unsuitable during the Big Ten Tournament loss to Washington past Davidson’s injury.
“It’s disappointing that it took us a while to really, really be in the fight,” Gottlieb said after her workforce’s 76-64 loss to the Huskies at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. “And by that, I mean the possessions and plays that are outside the X’s and O’s, the rebounding, the 50/50 balls. I do think we responded and tried to show up a little better in the second half, but against a really good team, it’s a little too late.”
USC guard Kennedy Smith (11) and her teammates are hoping to go on a run during the NCAA Tournament. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The upside to shedding so early in the convention event was not only extra relaxation and recovery time for Davidson but more follow time to work on issues that the workforce will need to get proper the remainder of the season.
“The concerns are we have to rebound from [the] jump,” Gottlieb said. “The ball has to transfer. We have to get to great open photographs every time. We have to be the hardest workforce for 40 minutes. This convention challenges you in a approach that could be very distinctive with 12 NCAA Tournament groups, and those who usually are not are still actually good groups.
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“The concern is that we figure it out. We get them fired up. We practice, and we come out, wherever they send us and whoever we play against, and we’re the team that is as sharp as we can possibly be.”
The Trojans hope they’ll journey their Big Four of Davidson, Kara Dunn, Kennedy Smith and Londynn Jones to a deep run after studying that it might stay intact upon Davidson being cleared.
“I think we’re confident in who we are,” Jones said. “We know the people that we have now, the workers that we have now. I feel when you lean on that and when you go back to what you are able to do, that always helps.
“We lost four in a row, but that’s adversity that you face down the road. And it happens. It happens to every team. Like I said, building from that, seeing where we can grow from that. And not really worried about whoever we play in March Madness. We have to step out and show what we’re capable of doing.”
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