Can there be too much of a great thing? For the third time in 25 days, No. 2-ranked Southern California will play No. 4 UCLA.
Only this time, they’ll battle nearly 2,100 miles from their usual Los Angeles stomping grounds in the championship game of the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.
Big Ten Player of the Year JuJu Watkins and the top-seeded Trojans (28-2) will face Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Lauren Betts and the second-seeded Bruins (29-2) for the title on Sunday afternoon.
UCLA’s only two losses have come against Southern California.
The Trojans won those games by double figures — 71-60 at home on Feb. 13 and 80-67 at UCLA on March 1 — to put the onus on the Bruins to prove to themselves that they are the Big Ten’s best squad and a worthy contender for the NCAA championship.
“Forget the tactical stuff,” UCLA coach Cori Close told the Big Ten Network after her team throttled Ohio State 75-46 in Saturday’s second tournament semifinal. “This is about a toughness check for us. Playing the way we want to play. More than anything else, I want us to play with a level of aggression, confidence, toughness, dictating how we want to do things.
“There’s going to be runs and great plays either way. I want us to fight — to play at the tempo and toughness that I know is inside of our players.”
Led by Betts, a 6-foot-7 junior center who averages 19.7 points, 9.9 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game, the Bruins opened the season with 23 straight wins and stood atop the Associated Press Top 25 poll for 12 straight weeks.
That run ended Feb. 13 on Southern California’s home floor as Watkins finished with 38 points.
In the rematch, the Trojans never trailed and Watkins finished with 30 points while Kiki Iriafen — the Trojans’ other All-Big Ten selection — contributed 17 points and nine rebounds.
Iriafen stepped forward in Southern California’s 82-70 semifinal win over Michigan on Saturday when Watkins was saddled with foul trouble and a cold shooting eye. Watkins had four points at halftime on 2-of-9 shooting from the floor, but Iriafen carried the load with 25 points and 11 rebounds.
“Obviously, Ju and Kiki cannot be guarded by one person,” said Trojans coach Lindsay Gottlieb. “And they showed up and did their thing. But we are not where we are without the contributions of our leadership.”
Judging by Gottlieb’s and Close’s beliefs, everyone on both sides will be voraciously hungry to contribute Sunday.
“This team has honestly been the hardest-working team I’ve had in 32 years,” Close said. “To combine our work and our character — and add the toughness of what it takes to go get a championship — it would really validate the kind of process that they’ve really committed to.”
Gottlieb said: “I think our players are insanely competitive and do have a will to win. With JuJu and Kiki in particular, it’s not just their talent. They just have a fierce kind of competitive will about them … and I think many people are like that on our team.”
–Field Level Media
