INDIANAPOLIS — USC and UCLA have made themselves right at home in the Big Ten.
The Trojans and Bruins will play for the conference tournament championship on Sunday, with the winner getting the Big Ten’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. That means, regardless of who wins, the Big Ten’s regular-season and conference tournament titles will go to a former Pac-12 team.
USC and UCLA, along with Oregon and Washington, left the Pac-12 after last season to join the Big Ten. Though the move has been an adjustment — more travel, getting to know new opponents — the Trojans and Bruins have fit right in. They were far and away the best teams in the Big Ten this season, with USC winning the regular-season conference title thanks to a win over UCLA last weekend.
Now they play for a third time in less than four weeks, with another title on the line.
TV channel: CBS
Geno Auriemma used to explain UConn’s dominance in Diana Taurasi’s days by saying, “We have Diana. And you don’t.” The same could be said for USC’s success against UCLA since JuJu Watkins arrived.
The Trojans snapped a nine-game losing streak to their crosstown rivals last year, Watkins’ freshman season. They’ve now won four in a row, and Watkins is the main reason. She’s averaging 33.3 points, 8.5 rebounds, four blocks and 3.5 assists per game against the Bruins.
In their first meeting this season, when USC handed UCLA its first loss of the year, Watkins scored 38 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and had eight — eight! — blocks. She had 30 points in USC’s win last weekend.
“We obviously felt really badly about how we played them the last time and how we showed up, and we don’t ever want to feel that again,” UCLA center Lauren Betts said Saturday night. “So I know we’re all going to change going into it.”
UCLA’s Londynn Jones had her best game of the season in the Big Ten tournament semifinals.
Jones had a season-high 22 points against Ohio State on Saturday night, 18 of which came on 3-pointers. The six made 3s is also a season high.
It was quite a turnaround for Jones, who’d gone 0-for-6 from 3-point range in the quarterfinal win over Nebraska.
“Not only was she spectacular in her numbers, but her response. She had a tough start at the very beginning of the game, and to stay that mentally focused and locked in and to come out and respond the way she did, I think that puts an even bigger exclamation mark on how well she played for the sake of our team,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “I just think that’s not easy to do, and that showed a lot of mental toughness on her part.”
