USC Trojans women's basketball

USC Trojans
University	University of Southern California
Conference	Pac-12
Location	Los Angeles, CA
Head coach	Cynthia Cooper-Dyke (1st year)
Arena	Galen Center (Capacity: 10,258)
Nickname	Trojans
Colors	Cardinal and Gold
Uniforms
Home Away Alternate

University of Southern California's women's basketball, or Women of Troy, rose to prominence in 1976. At that time scholarships became available to female basketball players. They were the first Division 1 team to do so. The Women of Troy made their first appearance in the Final Four in 1982. Following the successful 82 season, the Trojans went on to win National Championships in 1983 and 1984. The 1983 championship team included three All-Americans, Paula Mcgee, Cheryl Miller, and Rhonda Windham. The 1983 team went 31–2 in the regular and post-season combined. The 1983 team bested their opponent, Louisiana Tech, by a mere 2 points. The final score was 69–67. The 1984 championship team went 29–4 in the regular and post season. The 1984 team faced University of Tennessee. The victory this year came by a healthy eleven points. The final score was 72–61. USC made the National Championship again in 1986 but did not prevail. They lost to University of Texas 97–81. They have yet to appear in the National Championship since then.

In 1987 and 1994 the Trojans won the Pac-10 Championship. The Trojans had their longest time of not making it to the playoffs starting in 1998. That streak was broken when the team made it to the playoff bracket in 2005. Not until 2011 did the Trojans make it to the post season again. In 2006 USC opened the Galen Center. The Galen Center was the new home of the Women of Troy. It can seat over 10,000 fans. In 2007 the Galen Center was sold out for a game between the Trojans and the University of California Los Angeles. It was the first time in history that a NCAA women's basketball game was sold out. Every year since 1986 at least one member of the Trojans team has been honored in the Pac-10 awards. To date, eleven players who played for USC have won Olympic medals.^[1]

2012–2013 Season

With only one senior and three juniors on the team,^[2] the Women of Troy had low expectations for the 2012–13 campaign. After dropping the first game to Gonzaga, USC won 3 of its next 4 games, its only loss coming to the (at the time) #23 in the country, University of Nebraska. After a 3–2 start, the Women of Troy lost their next 6 games by an average of 16.5 points, thus wrapping up their non-conference schedule with a 3–8 record heading in to Pac-12 play.

They started their play in the Pac-12 hot, winning their first four games over University of Oregon, Oregon State University, University of Washington, and Washington State University. But then came the real challenge when they faced off against the #7 team in the country, California Golden Bears. USC managed to stay in the game and force OT, but ended up losing by 8, 71–63. After that, wins were hard to come by for the Women of Troy, losing 10 out of their next 11 after the Cal game. They finished off the regular season with two wins over University of Arizona and Arizona State University. They finished the regular season with a 10–19 record overall and 7–11 in conference play.

They had a seven seed in the Pac-12 conference tournament where in their first game they beat the 10 seed, Oregon State, 64–57. But they fell in their next game to the 2 seed, California, 78–59.^[3] As they did not have the record to qualify for the NCAA tournament, USC's season was complete with an overall record of 11–20. Junior Cassie Harberts led the team in points (18.0 per game) and rebounds (8.2 per game).^[3]

Five days after the Women of Troy's season finished, March 13, head coach Michael Cooper step downed from his position. Cooper was head coach for four seasons, failing to reach the NCAA tournament in all four seasons. About a month later, on April 11, USC announced they had hired Cynthia Cooper-Dyke as head coach. Cooper-Dyke played for USC and was on the two national championship teams.^[4]

Notable Players

• Michelle Campbell, played 1993–1997, then played for the Washington Mystics a WNBA team in 2000.^[5]
• Cynthia Cooper, played 1982–1986, joined Houston Comets 1997–2000. Signed as head coach at Prairie View A&M University in 2005, then UNC Wilmington in 2010, followed by Texas Southern in 2012.^[6]
• Lisa Leslie, played 1990–1994, also a 1996 U.S. Olympian. She then played for the Los Angeles Sparks a WNBA team 1997–2009^[7]
• Tina Thompson, played 1993–1997, then played for Houston Comets 1997–2008. Since 2009 she has played for the Los Angeles Sparks^[8]
• Cheryl Miller, played 1982–1986. She was the USC head coach 1993–1995. Also the head coach of the Phoenix Mercury 1997–2000.^[9]
• Nicky McCrimmon, played 1992–1994, then for the Los Angeles Sparks in 2000,and Houston Comets in 2005.^[5]
• Adrian Williams, played 1995–1999, then for the Minnesota Lynx 2006–2007.^[5]

Head Coaches

• Linda K. Sharp: 1977–1989
• Marianne Stanley: 1989–1993
• Fred Williams: 1995–1997
• Chris Gobrecht: 1997–2004^[10]
• Mark Trakh: 2004–2009
• Michael Cooper: 2009–2013^[11]
• Cynthia Cooper: 2013–Present^[12]

2013–14 Roster

Year by year results

Conference tournament winners noted with # Source^[13]

References

External links

• Official website