USC vs. Connecticut an Elite rematch of star players and standout coaches

The seeds for the most anticipated matchup of this women’s college basketball season were planted decades earlier, in the halls of Scarsdale High School in New York, where Geno Auriemma was hot on the trail of one of the sport’s most coveted recruits. As part of his full-court press to convince her, the Connecticut coach went so far as to enlist the help of her best friend, who would one day make a name for herself in the same world as Auriemma.

Lindsay Gottlieb tried her best to convince her friend, Hilary Howard, on Connecticut, to no avail. But the relationship between Gottlieb and Auriemma remained. When Gottlieb injured her knee as a high school senior, Auriemma reached out to offer his help. It was during that recovery process that Gottlieb first considered coaching, and over the years, as she climbed through the ranks, Auriemma would offer regular encouragement. When she led California to the Final Four in 2013, Auriemma, in the midst of a dynastic run with the Huskies, assured her it wouldn’t be the last.

“I remember him looking at me and saying, ‘Enjoy the first one. You’ll be back,” Gottlieb recalled this week.

It was Connecticut that would ultimately keep Gottlieb and USC out of the Final Four last season. And with both teams now on a similar collision course this season, Gottlieb and Auriemma will meet again Saturday for a marquee matchup that’s been billed as one of the most consequential games of the college basketball calendar.

The matchup pins not only two of the best coaches in women’s college basketball against each other again, but also arguably its two biggest stars, USC’s JuJu Watkins and UConn’s Paige Bueckers.

That was enough, amid the groundswell of new intrigue around women’s college basketball, to pique the interest of Fox, which put the game in a coveted prime-time slot, where it’s slated to follow the network’s Saturday NFL game. For USC, it’s one of nine games the team will play on national TV this season, six more than last season.

“We thought it would be a great opportunity for both teams to test ourselves and one another, but also to put a really quality matchup on TV early,” Gottlieb said. “We have a team we want to put on the biggest stage. We have a program that has aspirations to win in March, and you just can’t do that unless you’re playing high-quality games throughout the year.”

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USC rides a six-game win streak into Saturday, during which the Trojans have won their games by an average margin of 40 points. UConn has been similarly dominant, with wins over three ranked teams this season.

But the two contenders each slipped up in their toughest tests to date, as both fell in their respective matchups with No. 3 Notre Dame.

“Notre Dame was an early test that we obviously didn’t pass,” Gottlieb said. “You want to be at your best early and then try and grow from there; but if you’re not, the alternative is to look in the mirror and get better and keep working on the things you think will help you get there. I do think we’ve grown since then.”

Much of that process since has focused on finding more firepower alongside Watkins, who Gottlieb says is now seeing “defenses created around stopping her.” Still, the sophomore superstar has managed to score 20 points or more in all but one game this season.

Forward Kiki Iriafen wasn’t on the roster when USC lost to UConn last March, but so far has been one of the better secondary scoring threats in the sport this season, averaging 18.7 points per game. But USC may need more than Watkins and Iriafen alone to take down the Huskies.

That’s because Connecticut has an even deeper well of scorers behind Bueckers, who’s shooting an absurd 58% from the perimeter. Overall, no team in women’s college basketball has been hotter from the field this season than the Huskies, who are one of four teams in the sport to make better than 50% of their shots.

UConn forward Sarah Strong should make for a fitting foil to Iriafen as the Huskies’ best secondary scorer (17 points per game) and rebounding threat (8.3 rebounds per game). She’s fresh off a career-high performance against Iowa State in which she scored 29.

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“You have to worry so much about Paige,” Gottlieb said, “that it opens things up for Sarah.”

That’s just one facet of a chess match that should not only provide both powers with an early barometer of where their seasons are headed, but also give the sport a marquee early matchup to maintain its momentum.

That’s an opportunity, Gottlieb said, she couldn’t turn down, when Fox first expressed interest.

“I’ve known for a long time that there’s a couple teams and a couple windows that get the exposure,” Gottlieb said. “Really where we’ve tried to bring the program, it’s definitely significant.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.