In spite of the special place football holds in USC’s proverbial heart, this year has been all about women’s basketball.
Winning the first SEC regular-season championship in the school’s history, taking a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and dropping only five games overall, this has already been a historic year for the team. If nothing else happened the rest of the year, it would have already been one for the record books.
But something happened. Something big.
USC has managed to pick up the nation’s No. 1 recruit: the towering figure of A’ja Wilson. At the time of her announcement, everything — including Twitter — blew up.
Dawn Staley, USC’s head coach, tweeted “BOOM!!!!” President Harris Pastides tweeted a photo of himself, arms aloft, cheering. Wilson was trending nationally.
This burst of news coverage and obvious excitement is a sign of a necessary attitude change when it comes to the program. The team has come a long way since Staley took over the team 6 years ago, but her growing accomplishments haven’t always been followed by an uptick in student interest.
This past year has made up ground in more ways than one, building up a hype that is set to frenzy as the new season approaches.
Wilson’s announcement isn’t the only exciting recruitment news. Add her decision to the already stellar group of new talent coming in (including Jatarie White, Kaydra Duckett and Bianca Cuevas), and USC has a team with the potential to reach the Final Four, if not the NCAA championship.
Historically, USC hasn’t been a women’s basketball powerhouse. And it still isn’t just yet. But these pick-ups could be the anchor that attracts more top recruits to USC for years to come.
The program is already the most successful it’s ever been. This year, it’s poised to go even further, and it looks like the fan base is ready to go along with them.
We’re glad that the women’s team is on its way to being recognized as the rising power it is.