[TheFarm07]

Or, maybe the promise of being able to play with Watkins will be a draw to USC.  Especially in this age of transfers, I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the possibility that Watkins can kiss “winning” goodbye.

BC

Maybe. My guess is that USC is not going to win a national championship in the next 4 years. Since 2006, they’ve played in one NCAA tournament total. Yeah she might help draw in some other recruits, and she will tremendously help in elevating their program. But the ceiling is not winning a national championship. Maybe for some recruits that doesn’t matter and for some recruits it does. USC is not going to be a cellar dweller but I’m very skeptical at this point they will contend for a Pac12 title. Time will tell. The portal has definitely changed things and they may get some big name transfers.  Their coaching is also pretty mediocre and that matters too.

We went 20 years between national titles. None of us is going to say that the Ogwumike sisters should have gone to UConn, where they could have probably won several national titles.

Moreover if she does turn USC into a contender, then she can lay claim to being the one who built the program instead of being a cog in the machine.  I think that was one of the arguments Kiki Rice made last year.

Ultimately, it comes across as sour grapes. Not everyone picks Stanford.

BC

We can't help but be disappointed by the decision and I certainly wish her the personal best going forward. And as I said earlier, every person's priorities are different and we should certainly respect that. There's no place for any vitriol (and no one has done that here). But there's also a part of me that is now even more particularly incentivized that we win a couple of national titles in the next few years...

[TheFarm07]

Or, maybe the promise of being able to play with Watkins will be a draw to USC.  Especially in this age of transfers, I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the possibility that Watkins can kiss “winning” goodbye.

BC

Maybe. My guess is that USC is not going to win a national championship in the next 4 years. Since 2006, they’ve played in one NCAA tournament total. Yeah she might help draw in some other recruits, and she will tremendously help in elevating their program. But the ceiling is not winning a national championship. Maybe for some recruits that doesn’t matter and for some recruits it does. USC is not going to be a cellar dweller but I’m very skeptical at this point they will contend for a Pac12 title. Time will tell. The portal has definitely changed things and they may get some big name transfers.  Their coaching is also pretty mediocre and that matters too.

We went 20 years between national titles. None of us is going to say that the Ogwumike sisters should have gone to UConn, where they could have probably won several national titles.

Moreover if she does turn USC into a contender, then she can lay claim to being the one who built the program instead of being a cog in the machine.  I think that was one of the arguments Kiki Rice made last year.

Ultimately, it comes across as sour grapes. Not everyone picks Stanford.

BC

We can't help but be disappointed by the decision and I certainly wish her the personal best going forward. And as I said earlier, every person's priorities are different and we should certainly respect that. There's no place for any vitriol (and no one has done that here). But there's also a part of me that is now even more particularly incentivized that we win a couple of national titles in the next few years...