Big Ten conference home and road matchups set for USC women's basketball
Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb, star guard JuJu Watkins and the rest of the USC Trojans will head into the 2024-25 women’s college basketball season as one of the hunted after a stellar season last year finished with the Trojans in the Elite 8. Now, Gottlieb and crew know a bit about their path to the NCAA Tournament as the Big Ten released home and away matchups for the conference games.
Unlike the men’s team, which plays Oregon, UCLA and Washington all home and away, the women’s team only plays UCLA both at Galen Center and Pauley Pavilion.
The road trips for USC include Indiana, Purdue, Iowa, Wisconsin, Maryland, Rutgers, Washington and Oregon.
Iowa finished last season as the No. 2 team in the country but will be without superstar Caitlin Clark this fall. Indiana finished No. 12 in both the AP and Coaches Poll. UCLA finished No. 10 in the AP and No. 9 in the Coaches.
Home games at Galen will likely be a much tougher ticket this fall than they have been in years past. There will be a swell of USC support for a team that will likely open the season in the Top 10 and possibly Top 5. And Big Ten fans will continue to fill up arenas on the road as they always do.
Illinois, Northwestern, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Minnesota and Nebraska will all visit Los Angeles this season.
The Buckeyes finished last season as the lone ranked team from that group, at No. 14 in the Coaches Poll and No. 16 in the AP. Nebraska was among the others receiving votes.
USC lost a few key veterans from last year’s team but Gottlieb had phenomenal success in the transfer portal this offseason. The Trojans landed forward Kiki Iriafen from Stanford and guard Talia von Oelhoffen from Oregon State. Both are coming off First-Team All-Pac-12 seasons and helped their teams to solid NCAA Tournament runs last season. That trio — Watkins included — will join up with the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class headed to USC.
