USC's quest to win its first national title since 1984 hit a snag last season, as star guard JuJu Watkins missed the entire season. But Watkins returns for the 2026-27 season and the Trojans enter this campaign with major expectations, landing at No. 3 in ESPN's preseason Top 25 poll.
What can we expect USC's starting lineup and rotation to look like this season with Watkins back?
Projected USC women's basketball rotation for 2026-27
PG | SG | SF | PF | C | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Starter | JuJu Watkins | Jazzy Davidson | Kennedy Smith | Sitaya Fagan | Sara Okeke |
Reserves | Ryann Bennett | Rian Forestier | Saniya Hall | Pania Davis |
More than likely, the Trojans will go into the season with nine players in the rotation. Of those nine, three seem fairly locked into starting roles, while the other two starting spots are up for grabs.
Let's start with what we know: JuJu Watkins and Jazzy Davidson will share the backcourt. There's nothing to really question here. Watkins is the expected No. 1 pick in next year's WNBA Draft if she declares, a truly gifted lead scorer who operates best with the ball in her hands. She's not a true point guard, but she's who USC will start there, because the best path to the team winning a national title is to have Watkins making the team's on-court decisions. She'll need to cut down on turnovers, but that's a risk USC has to be willing to take.
Davidson will start beside her. As a freshman, she was forced into the lead scorer role by the Watkins injury and she did her best, but efficiency was definitely a concern a lot of the time. With Watkins back, Davidson gets to spend a year in a more secondary role, something that should really help her game in both the short and long term. She'll get to develop more off of the ball, and that should give her easier shot attempts.
At the three, Lindsay Gottlieb will likely start Kennedy Smith, who played well last season as a secondary creator and who brings some much-needed defense to the table. Smith can be deployed as the lead defender on the opposing team's best player, which is a huge plus in her direction when it comes to grabbing this starting spot.
This is where things get a bit more confusing: USC has to figure out what it does at the four. If we assume Smith has to start for her defensive upside, the question becomes if the Trojans run a very small lineup with freshman Saniyah Hall out there or if the team opts to put another freshman, Sitaya Fagan, out there for her size. Hall is the No. 1 recruit from this class, but she's also not really a four. USC would essentially be committing to starting a lineup with four guards in it, which doesn't feel super sustainable. Fagan, meanwhile, is one of the best young players in Australia and starting her there makes more traditional basketball sense. We likely see both options at various times, but the four-guard lineup feels like the one that should be sprinkled in, not the one to start with.
At center, freshman Sara Okeke will likely edge out Pania Davis for the job. Davis has the size advantage at 6-foot-6, but Okeke is a highly-rated prospect who has significantly more upside. USC has been known to throw its freshmen directly into the fire, so Okeke should be viewed as the more likely starter, though Davis will play a lot in a frontcourt that's fairly shallow and can be used heavily when the matchup calls for it.
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