USC women’s basketball announces its non-conference schedule

With the 2024-25 season slowly approaching, the women’s basketball program announced its 11-game non-conference schedule.

The Trojans open their season in Paris against the University of Mississippi in one of two Aflac Oui-Play games on November 4. It’ll mark the first time that Ole Miss and USC have met in women’s basketball.

USC is set for a promising season after clinching the No. 1 seed in the NCAA March Madness tournament since 1986. They made it to the Elite Eight before falling to the University of Connecticut.

Last season, National Freshman of the Year guard JuJu Watkins led USC to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight. In the offseason, head coach Lindsay Gottlieb has added even more star power this year with graduate transfers Kiki Iriafen and Talia von Oelhoffen. Iriafen was the 2024 power forward of the year and von Oelhoffen was an All-Pac-12 Team honoree.

USC opens its first home stand against the Cal Poly Mustangs, followed by more home games against the California State Northridge Matadors, Santa Clara University and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

The Trojans will battle their historic rivals on November 23, a game between two AP All-America first team recipients in Watkins and Notre Dame sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo. Watkins set national records by breaking the national freshman scoring record with 920 points. Hidalgo set a pair of Notre Dame records with the highest single-season averages for points per game at 22.6 and steals per game, with 6.2.

The Irish and USC’s women’s basketball teams haven’t played each other since 2011. Hidalgo and Watkins are both in the same class, so the head-to-head battle between the two should make for an exciting showdown.

Notre Dame will be USC’s last home game before Thanksgiving, when the Trojans will play Seton Hall and Saint Louis University in the Acrisure Series in Palm Springs.

Looking towards the end of the season, the Trojans will take on California Baptist University, Fresno State and Elon University.

USC ends the year with an anticipated Elite Eight rematch against the University of Connecticut. The Trojans fell to the Huskies in the Elite Eight last year, by a 80-73 score.

UConn has one of the best players in the country in redshirt senior guard Paige Bueckers. Bueckers is a former National Player of the Year, earning the award as a freshman during the 2020-2021 season. She averaged 21.9 points per game, 5.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists last year. Her career has been stunted by injuries, but despite the odds, she led her team to the Final Four as a redshirt junior.

Watkins is a star who will only continue to develop her game in the coming season. Additionally, Bueckers and Iriafen are both headed to the WNBA draft next spring and mock drafts have them both going in the top two.

The Huskies lost two starting players to the WNBA, forward Aaliyah Edwards and guard Nika Muhl. The Trojans lost forwards McKenzie Forbes and Kaitlyn Davis, but they still have Rayah Marshall and added Iriafen to their roster.

As such, UConn has two big roles to fill, while USC has only strengthened its roster with established college stars. Since it’ll be the last game of their non-conference schedules, both teams should find themselves in rhythm, having worked out any early-season kinks.

If the Trojans can come away with a win against UConn, a national championship is even more firmly on the horizon.