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USC women's basketball prepares for mighty UCLA on Saturday in Pauley Pavilion. It's always a fierce battle and always a highlight of the season schedule. USC-UCLA has become not just an elite basketball rivalry but a Los Angeles sports must-see event. Lindsay Gottlieb and Cori Close have built powerhouse programs. This is better than Dodgers-Angels, Rams-Chargers, Clippers-Lakers, Ducks-Kings, and any other Southern California pro sports clash.
If JuJu Watkins had been healthy this season, USC would have the makings of a Final Four team. Being realistic, the Trojans don't appear to be ready to rise to that standard, but next season, they could be the favorite to win the whole thing and capture a national championship. They bring in elite recruits with JuJu coming back to join Kennedy Smith and Jazzy Davidson. USC is going to be absolutely loaded with top players.
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This year, UCLA is the team which is absolutely stacked with high-end talent. The Bruins have tons of proven, polished, experienced seniors. They have size and length. They have backcourt shotmaking. They are extremely hard to deal with at both ends of the floor. In the matchup with USC, though, UCLA's ultimate hammer is Lauren Betts.
In the past, USC and Lindsay Gottlieb were able to put big-bodied Rayah Marshall and Clarice Akunwafo on Betts, rotating the two bigs and using all 10 fouls they had to give to provide a physical presence Betts doesn't like to deal with. It was the ultimate anti-Betts strategy. Given that USC won two of three against UCLA last season in head-to-head meetings, it's clear the approach worked. This season, however, USC doesn't have Rayah or Clarice. Its frontcourt is less powerful and formidable.
The outcome against UCLA boils down to USC getting enough from its frontcourt to stay in the hunt and allow the Trojans' talented backcourt to outplay the UCLA guards by a large margin. If USC gets absolutely obliterated in the paint and on the glass, a big backcourt game for the Trojans won't be enough to win.
Gerda Raulusaityte has received most of the frontcourt minutes this season, but Lauren Betts will be her toughest challenge by far. She will need help defense to assist her, and USC will also need to send all five players to the glass to rebound.
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At the offensive end, USC can't play 4 on 5. The frontcourt -- usually Gerda, but also her backups in a rotating committee system -- has to do enough to attract at least some attention from Betts so that Jazzy Davidson and Kennedy Smith have driving lanes and can attack from other angles.
USC's frontcourt isn't going to outplay UCLA's, but it can at least make modest contributions which prevent UCLA from pulling away. The Trojans, as long as they stay close in the fourth quarter, have guards who can hit big shots and make winning plays. The frontcourt won't dominate this game, but it certainly has to be better than what we have seen through the first two months of the season.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC women's basketball frontcourt needs to evolve, improve vs UCLA
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