The USC girls’s basketball season nonetheless has a protracted method to go, however eight video games into the 2025-26 season, followers are beginning to get an concept of the id of this 12 months’s model of the Trojans. Eight video games do not outline a season, however they’re sufficient to select up on some tendencies, each good and unhealthy.
It is also sufficient time to select up on some tendencies within the higher girls’s basketball world. We’ve sufficient of a pattern dimension to get an concept of different groups’ identities, strengths and weaknesses.
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Which implies we can also begin to get an concept of how leaving USC has labored out for former Trojans. USC misplaced 4 gamers within the switch portal this previous offseason, together with three former five-star recruits. How has that call to depart labored out for them? Let’s have a look.
Avery Howell, G, Washington
Avery Howell is prospering up in Seattle.
She burst onto the scene for the Huskies with 18 factors on 5-5 capturing (together with 4-4 on three pointers in addition to 4-5 on free throws) in her first recreation sporting the purple and gold again on November 3 in opposition to Seattle College.
She’s primarily a scoring menace for Washington, averaging 12.1 factors per recreation. She has reached double-figure scoring in 5 of her 8 video games performed.
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However she has discovered a method to affect the sport in different methods as properly. She’s really Washington’s main rebounder at 6.9 boards per recreation. In a recreation in opposition to College of Vermont the place she had her worst scoring output (4 factors), she made up for it by knocking down a whopping 12 rebounds. Her total affect on successful is obvious: she averages probably the most minutes per recreation of any participant on the Huskies (28.8).
In the event you’re a Trojan fan who hasn’t caught certainly one of Howell’s video games, you could have a fantastic alternative to take action very quickly: Howell and the Huskies come to Galen Middle this Sunday to tackle USC. Trojan followers will get a take a look at why Howell, Sayvia Sellers and the remainder of the Huskies have earned a No. 21 rating within the AP Ballot — however hopefully the Trojans will nonetheless show to be the higher staff.
Kayleigh Heckel, G, UConn
If Kayleigh Heckel’s purpose when she transferred to UConn was to develop into a starter for the Huskies, she has failed to date.
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That will look like a harsh assertion to guide with, however there is a purpose I did. I feel Kayleigh Heckel would simply be a starter for the 2025-26 USC Trojans. Heck, I want she was! I feel her taking part in model alongside Jazzy Davidson could be very entertaining.
I additionally suppose that Kayleigh Heckel had the expertise to begin for final 12 months’s USC staff and so I would not fault her for leaving through the switch portal to search out a possibility to begin. That is not the way it’s labored out to date.
HOWEVER, Heckel continues to be in superb arms with Geno Auriemma. She could not have began a recreation but however she is getting starter-caliber minutes: 19.5 per recreation, fifth-most on the staff. She’s placing up 6.6 factors per recreation and has improved defensively, averaging 1.9 steals per recreation.
And the Huskies are closely favored to repeat as nationwide champions. Some folks suppose they might be undefeated nationwide champions. So there’s that.
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USC can be taking part in juggernaut UConn very quickly as properly, on Saturday December 13 at Galen Middle. Howell and Heckel in again to again video games at Galen? Seize your popcorn.
Dominique Darius, G, Syracuse
Darius is probably probably the most shocking story out of USC’s total outgoing switch class to date.
Darius spent her first three collegiate seasons at UCLA, then went to USC for 2 seasons in 2023-24 and 2024-25. 5 years into her school profession, she’d by no means had a serious position on any of her groups. She had solely 8 complete collegiate begins with most of these coming manner again in 2021-22. She missed your entire 2024-25 season at USC.
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However this 12 months, Darius has develop into a star for Syracuse. She has began all 7 video games for the Orange and is third on the staff with 11.9 factors per recreation. She’s additionally first on the staff with 2.4 steals per recreation. And the Orange are a strong staff: they’ve a 6-1 document to date. It is superior to see Darius’s school profession, which started manner again in 2020, lastly blossom.
Aaliyah Gayles, G, Utah State
Three seasons after Gayles was Lindsay Gottlieb’s first five-star recruit and the No. 8 participant within the nation, she is taking part in like a star and a go-to participant. It did not occur at USC, but it surely’s actually nice to see nonetheless.
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You may recall that Gayles headed for a star profession at USC earlier than she was shot 9 occasions at a home social gathering in April of 2022, just some months earlier than her first season at USC in 2022-23. It was completely heartbreaking. However Gayles not solely survived and recovered, however performed for the Trojans for 2 seasons, in 2023-24 and 2024-25.
She could have by no means began a recreation for the Trojans, or scored greater than 5 factors in a recreation, however her constructive presence and provoking tenacity nonetheless made such an enormous affect on the USC girls’s basketball program.
And now, she is attending to be a star participant once more. She missed Utah State’s first recreation however has began each recreation for the Aggies since, averaging 12.8 factors per recreation, 3.2 rebounds and 0.8 assists.
Utah State is not going to be competing for a nationwide championship or something like that this season, however Gayles continues to be among the best tales in girls’s school basketball. This is to hoping the perfect of her profession continues to be in entrance of her.
USC’s incoming transfers
Wait, but when it is excellent news for everybody who left USC, is that conversely unhealthy information for USC?
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Not so quick. The Trojans’ incoming switch class has been wonderful. Kara Dunn and Londynn Jones have been significantly good; they rank second and third in scoring on USC’s roster respectively.
You could possibly argue that this Trojan staff may use a ground common like Darius or a rebounder like Howell, and I might perceive. I complained about not having Kayleigh Heckel in cardinal and gold this 12 months earlier on this article myself.
However this looks as if a state of affairs the place it is labored out for everybody. This present USC staff is superb, and everybody that left it’s also thriving. The place would we put 4 extra guards on this USC staff stuffed with guards anyway?
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So it appears the roster turnover labored out greatest for everybody. But it surely’s definitely one thing we’ll proceed to watch at Trojans Wire because the season goes on.
This text initially appeared on Trojans Wire: Former USC girls’s basketball gamers having success at different colleges
