Swanson: USC, UCLA enjoy first-round routs, but job's far from finished

24/03/2024 19:35

LOS ANGELES – One rainy spring Saturday in Los Angeles. Two college basketball arenas. A grand total of 17,227 fans on hand to see victories for the home teams by a combined 61 points.

A good day, a successful day.

But there's this quote, from a famous L.A. philosopher: Job's not finished.

Sure, the sun came out while 8,386 gathered at Galen Center to see the No. 1-seeded USC women's basketball team cruise against No. 16 Texas A&M Corpus Christie, 87-55 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. And the sun went down as 8,841 at Pauley Pavilion watched No. 2 UCLA figure out No. 15 California Baptist, 84-55.

What more could anyone ask for – except more?

"I do you have one last thing," UCLA coach Cori Close said before stepping down from the dais Saturday, one song into her eighth Big Dance with the Bruins. "Nine thousand here today – can we beat that Monday? … Let’s keep the buzz going and pack this place Monday."

She's right, about the buzzing. Both first-round games were so electric, those crowds so loud – despite the lopsided scores – I'd understand if people woke up to ringing in their ears, some tingling in their souls.

Women's basketball is catching everywhere, we know. Record attendance, record viewership, and L.A. hasn't been too cool to get with it. No, L.A. is with it.

JuJu Watkins' No. 12 jersey has become a staple at Trojans' games, but I must have spotted at least 45 No. 45 T-shirts during a lap around the concourse at halftime, Kayla Padilla's people – family, friends, fellow Filipinos, fourth-grade friend Natalie Ibarra  – showing up to support to Torrance native and Penn grad transfer guard in her NCAA Tournament debut.

More of these T-shirts than 12s around the Galen concourse this afternoon. Fam, fans, friends, fellow Filipinos, elementary school classmates out to support USC's/Torrance's/Bishop Montgomery's Kayla Padilla in her NCAA Tournament debut. pic.twitter.com/Cghlatcw2W

— Mirjam Swanson (@MirjamSwanson) March 23, 2024

A few hours later, over at Pauley, I did another lap and counted eight of Kiki Rice's No. 1 jerseys. Seven of them on grown men. Different ages, backgrounds. These guys are fans – not friends and family.

I can't remember ever seeing a dude wearing a woman's jersey 20 years ago. It looks good on you guys.

Winning looks good on everybody.

No pressure, ladies, but this tournament could be a game-changer locally. An opportunity to put the exclamation point on an inflection point. A moment for women's college hoops to really get its hooks in people around here.

To make real a vision both teams' coaches talked to me about as this so-far special season was getting rolling: "I hope," Close said in November, "that we're not just competing for conference championships, but that we're in Final Fours against each other."

"Why," Gottlieb asked the same week, "shouldn't this be the best rivalry in America?"

Vice President Kamala Harris – a savvy California politician – has it happening this year in her bracket.

Just the teams on the floor will have to live up to their end of the bargain – even if the NCAA is out here flubbing its job.

L.A., you've outdone yourself, college sports' regulatory body seems to be saying. How, the NCAA wondered, can we take this opportunity to continue to grow the game and diminish it?

One city producing a No. 1 and No. 2 seed? Both programs earning the job of hosting the first two rounds? Let us find a way to tamp down on our own tournament's attendance!

So we've wound up with both teams playing on the same day – and worse, on Monday, with both teams' games overlapping. UCLA will take on No. 7 Creighton at 5:30 p.m. at Pauley; USC will host Kansas at 7 p.m. across town at Galen.

These moments #MarchMadness x @UCLAWBBpic.twitter.com/v55PkKZvhn

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) March 24, 2024

And they'll both still draw a crowd, because, famously, L.A. loves winners, and these women have been winning.

USC (27-5) started the year ranked 21st and spent the season building toward its first No. 1 seed since 1986. More formidable by the footstep, Lindsay Gottlieb's team has Texas A&M Corpus Christie's coach expecting big things.

After his side was overwhelmed by a Trojans team that seemed like it was enjoying a walk in the proverbial park after the gauntlet that was the Pac-12 (RIP), Royce Chadwick said: "They have the whole thing. They got the tools. They got the coach. I don’t think they have a limit … USC needs to win the whole thing, so that we can say, 'Yeah, we played them.'"

In other words, if the Trojans get tripped up before, say, they run into UConn in the Elite Eight, it'll feel like they've fallen substantially short; it'll take the air out of the ascent.

Over at UCLA, Close's squad – on that ascent for years now – started so well this season that the Bruins (26-6) climbed into No. 2 in the Associated Press poll, higher than ever in the program's history. And that's how they ended the regular season too, with their highest tournament seeding ever.

And, no, the bracketeers really didn't do UCLA any favors; the Bruins are playing this thing on the Hard setting. Likely to be standing between the Bruins and their first Final Four appearance: The defending champion LSU Tigers and then Caitlin Clark and her Iowa Hawkeyes, last year’s runners-up.

Unless, of course, mayhem ensues before then, and you never know. But it'd be better if it didn't, because think of the reward waiting for a team on the other side of something that hard.

And it is going to be hard, especially if Lauren Betts misses more games (Close could say only that she's "hopeful” the 6-foot-7 center will be available Monday).

Shoot, Saturday was hard for a half – "We did make UCLA call two timeouts!" CBU coach Jarrod Olson boasted – before the Bruins broke the tension for good with a 36-second spurt to open the second half that pushed the lead from 12 to 20.

CBU was plenty happy to be there Saturday and also plenty pleased with itself for making UCLA sweat.

Olson had a prediction, too: "I used to work at Creighton. (Coach Jim) Flanery is one of my good friends, so I’m going to say they’re going to lose next."

That would be disappointing. That would go down as an incomplete assignment. No credit for that – except, perhaps, with the people drawing up the brackets, because no one would appreciate a good opportunity squandered like those folks.

JuJu Watkins poses for pictures with Bianka and Capri Bryant after #USC advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Galen Center. pic.twitter.com/N0Zrb9eFxz

— McKenna Keil (@mckenna_keil) March 23, 2024