LOS ANGELES \u2014 It was a Sunday morning in late September 2024, and USC women\u2019s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb was in her campus office. Across from her sat Jazzy Davidson \u2013 the top-ranked player in the 2025 class.<\/p>\n
Davidson had been on campus in February for an official visit but asked to come back seven months later on her own dime for an unofficial trip.<\/p>\n
Gottlieb, one of the nation\u2019s most successful women\u2019s basketball coaches, is used to attracting elite talent<\/a>. Since taking over the program in 2021, she has led USC to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, including two runs to the Elite Eight<\/a>, and a revival powered by 2023\u2019s No. 1 recruit, JuJu Watkins<\/a> \u2013 already a revered figure in the sport.<\/p>\n Gottlieb had already said her goodbyes to Davidson, her mother, and her grandmother the night before, because the family was leaving Sunday to go back home to Oregon.<\/p>\n So she didn\u2019t exactly know why she was at work on her day off.<\/p>\n Davidson had texted that morning, saying she had forgotten something in the office and wanted to talk alone, sparking curiosity.<\/p>\n \u201cI got you a thank-you card,\u201d Davidson said, handing her a note.<\/p>\n Gottlieb smiled, tucking it aside for later.<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d Davidson said. \u201cI want you to open it now.\u201d<\/p>\n She did. It was warm, personal \u2013 a reflection of a bond that started in a Brooklyn zoo years earlier. Then Gottlieb reached the last line.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m committing here,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n Gottlieb began to happily cry.<\/p>\n Why did a coach who was already so successful, leading a star-laden roster, cry at this specific commitment?<\/p>\n Well, the moment was special, and the gesture was nice.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s deeper than that.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was special for her to take the time to tell me in person,\u201d Gottlieb said. \u201cTo want to tell me with a cute note and just take the time to do it. It was like no other commitment I\u2019ve gotten.\u201d<\/p>\n The turning point<\/p>\n Born Nov. 6, 2006, in Clackamas, Oregon, Jasmine \u201cJazzy\u201d Davidson didn\u2019t set out to be a basketball player. Her mother, Monica, kept her only child busy with a carousel of activities \u2013 soccer, singing lessons, piano and gymnastics.<\/p>\n \u201cI honestly didn\u2019t have that much interest in basketball at first,\u201d Davidson said.<\/p>\n But she was tall and\u00a0kept growing.<\/p>\n Now a 6-foot-1 stretch forward with deft ball-handling skills and the ability to \u201cglide\u201d past defenders, as Gottlieb put it, before finishing at the rim or pulling up from midrange, she still towers over most peers. Even as a child, her height set her apart, and her mother noticed.<\/p>\n \u201cMy mom had me in all kinds of stuff,\u201d Davidson said. \u201cShe said, \u2018She\u2019s tall, let\u2019s sign her up for basketball.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n What began as an after-school activity became an obsession and purpose. As friendships deepened and her skills sharpened, her love for the game expanded.<\/p>\n Well, friendships and Sabrina Ionescu.<\/p>\n Clackamas is a 20-minute drive from Portland, tucked between fir-lined hills and farmland. A small, tight-knit emerald jewel of the Pacific Northwest. Davidson calls it \u201cvery green.\u201d<\/p>\n The WNBA\u2019s Seattle Storm were only three hours north, but Davidson\u2019s gaze stayed about 100 miles south toward Eugene. She watched the \u201ctriple-double queen\u201d carve up college record books in Oregon green and yellow. Ionescu was a two-time Wooden Award winner and a Naismith honoree, finishing her college career with an NCAA record 26 triple-doubles.<\/p>\n Davidson was there for all of it.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t watch much WNBA growing up,\u201d she said. \u201cI watched the Oregon Ducks when Sabrina was there. They were the big thing in Oregon. My family and I would drive down to all her games and watch. She really inspired me.\u201d<\/p>\n She was there in the Matthew Knight Arena stands on the night when Ionescu dropped 30 points in an exhibition upset of Team USA in 2019. So, like Gottlieb, she knows generational talent.<\/p>\n By seventh grade, Davidson was beginning to become one herself.<\/p>\n As a middle schooler, she was already competing in national tournaments at the 17U level with Northwest Select. She competed not just against older players, but against some of the nation\u2019s best. As she dominated, the realization hit: Her talent outpaced her peers, which sparked a new hunger.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was my turning point,\u201d Davidson said. \u201cIt\u2019s when I started seeing how I stacked up against some of the best kids in the country. It was a huge sign that I could actually play Division I basketball and take it further.\u201d<\/p>\n So she set her goals: WNBA, All-Star, Olympian.<\/p>\n And never forgot them.<\/p>\n Motivated by goals<\/p>\n Basketball is a merciless taskmaster, demanding an almost inhuman tally of hours to perfect. Long hours in the gym and the weight room. Thousands upon thousands of shots. A commitment to a never-satiated pursuit of greatness.<\/p>\n Purpose must outweigh motivation because motivation will abandon you.<\/p>\n Even today, as Davidson has started her daily college workouts with the Trojans, she said some days \u2013 if not every day \u2013 can be a challenge to find inspiration.<\/p>\n But her purpose hasn\u2019t wavered.<\/p>\n \u201cMy goals,\u201d Davidson said, \u201cthat\u2019s what it requires of me. I want to be a WNBA player. I want to be a WNBA All-Star. I want to be an Olympian. I know the work that you have to put in to achieve those goals, and that\u2019s what motivates me every day.\u201d<\/p>\n She began ascending recruiting boards. Entering Clackamas High, she was ranked No. 1 in the country on ESPN\u2019s initial class rankings. Her AAU exploits had garnered attention from college coaches nationwide.<\/p>\n As Davidson began her Clackamas career, so did a newly hired college coach<\/a> who was looking to return the USC program<\/a> to powerhouse status<\/a> \u2013 one who saw Davidson as a program-defining player and deemed her a \u201cpriority\u201d early in her tenure.<\/p>\n Davidson\u2019s hero, Ionescu, obliterated the record books in Oregon and left an indelible legacy replete with awards. What Davidson did in her four years at Clackamas reads similarly.<\/p>\n She was an indomitable force during her freshman season. She averaged 22.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.1 steals, 2.7 assists, and 1.4 blocked shots per game, recorded nine double-doubles, and was named Oregon Gatorade Player of the Year.<\/p>\n Then she won the Player of the Year award again.<\/p>\n Then again.<\/p>\n And again.<\/p>\n During her junior year, she led Clackamas to its first Class 6A state championship in 2023. By the time her senior season was over, she left the program with career averages of 25.1 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.4 steals, 2.5 assists, and 1.4 blocks.<\/p>\n She was an unstoppable offensive engine, an overwhelming rebounding presence and a game-wrecking defensive anchor.<\/p>\n She was a McDonald\u2019s All-American, still ESPN\u2019s top-ranked recruit, and had offers from every program in the country. From Day One, she was the type of player for whom many coaches wanted to build their programs.<\/p>\n Now, Davidson is the next star joining a team already led by a transformative force \u2013 though Watkins, recovering from a torn ACL suffered in March<\/a>, might not take the court next season, and Gottlieb said she won\u2019t rush her return.<\/p>\n The coach already has a star joining an immensely talented roster to take over in the interim. And another after Davidson. Saniyah Hall, the top-ranked player in the 2026 class, has already committed to USC as well<\/a>.<\/p>\n So it begs the original question: Why did Gottlieb cry tears of joy when specifically Davidson committed?<\/p>\n \u2018It was just a no-brainer\u2019<\/p>\n This recruitment was more than a phenom choosing USC \u2013 it was the result of a relationship forged years ago, the culmination of a long-term plan, and a deeply personal fulfillment.<\/p>\n \u201cUSC has wanted me for as long as I can remember,\u201d Davidson said. \u201cI\u2019ve had a long and great relationship with Coach Lindsay. It was just a no-brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n It was August 2021, and Gottlieb was in New York visiting family, just two months after being named USC\u2019s coach. The former NBA assistant coach was taking the reins of a program<\/a> that had gone nearly a decade without an NCAA Tournament appearance and was coming off an 11-12 season in 2020-21.<\/p>\n She was in Brooklyn at, ironically, Prospect Park Zoo when her phone buzzed.<\/p>\n A high school freshman from Oregon was calling. NCAA rules said coaches couldn\u2019t contact first, but players could. So she slipped away from family to take it.<\/p>\n This call mattered.<\/p>\n It was a prospect she had seen on her very first recruiting trip. One, she had \u201cmade a priority right away.\u201d As they spoke, Gottlieb set a quiet, personal goal for the team she now led.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember thinking,\u201d she said, \u201cI hope I can get this program good enough, where she would consider us.\u201d<\/p>\n That recruit was going to be the player she would measure her success by in building the Trojans. USC was going to be constructed for this player.<\/p>\n Just over a year later, Watkins committed to USC and ignited the program\u2019s return to national prominence<\/a>. She was a monumental recruiting win<\/a>.<\/p>\n But that wasn\u2019t JuJu on the other end of this phone call.<\/p>\n Since the beginning, Jazzy Davidson had always been the benchmark.<\/p>\n Now she\u2019s officially a Trojan.<\/p>\n It was enough to make a grown woman cry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 It was a Sunday morning in late September 2024, and USC women\u2019s basketball coach Lindsay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,3474,217,325,17514,231,772,1544,66,34593],"class_list":{"0":"post-234757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-big-ten-conference","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-college-sports","12":"tag-juju-watkins","13":"tag-ncaa","14":"tag-ncaa-basketball","15":"tag-ncaab","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-usc-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115039827766560612","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}