What’s on the horizon for USC and JuJu Watkins after raising the bar this season?
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.Advertisement“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 […]