SPOKANE, Wash. — When Rayah Marshall and Clarice Akunwafo came to USC in 2021, the Trojans were in a rut. The pair of top-30 recruits committed to a program that hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament in seven years.
Coach Lindsay Gottlieb’s arrival brought some hope, but signs of progress were slow. USC drew just more than 1,000 people at its home arena only five times that season. The shining moment of that campaign came in January, when the Trojans upset then-No. 4 Arizona, the national title runner-up from the previous year, in a game played in front of no fans due to the omicron wave of the coronavirus. Nevertheless, it became a reference point.
“I grabbed those two and said, ‘Hey, enjoy this. At some point, we are going to be that team that other people are trying to beat,’” Gottlieb said.
Her freshmen weren’t so sure. Akunwafo remembers being confused, and Marshall’s reaction in the moment was filled with skepticism: “Yo, is that woman okay?”
Three years later, Gottlieb fulfilled her promise. The top-seeded Trojans may have fallen short of their ultimate goal in 2025 with their 78-64 Elite Eight loss to second-seeded UConn, but they were the team the Huskies had to beat to get to the Final Four. From the start of this season, USC was the hunted, the opponent…
