USC Women's Basketball Earns No. 9 Seed in 2026 NCAA Tournament

March 15, 2026 | Women's Basketball

Trojans head to South Carolina to clash with Clemson on Saturday during First Round.

LOS ANGELES — The USC women's basketball team (17-13) has been selected as a No. 9 seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, sending the Trojans to Columbia, S.C., to face No. 8 seed Clemson (21-11) in the First Round on Saturday. The game will be played at Colonial Life Arena, where the No. 1 seeded South Carolina Gamecocks will serve as the regional host. South Carolina will face either Samford or Southern University in the opening round, with winners of Saturday's games advancing to the NCAA Second Round on Monday, March 23.

The Trojans and Tigers will meet for the first time in program history, marking USC's first match up against the Atlantic Coast Conference program.

The Women of Troy return to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive season under fifth year head coach Lindsay Gottlieb. This season the Trojans finished ninth in the Big Ten regular season standings, going 9-9 against conference opponents. Freshman guard Jazzy Davidson wrapped the regular season leading USC outright in every major statistical category, including points (17.9), rebounds (5.9), assists (4.3), steals (2.0) and blocks per game (2.1), a feat unmatched by any other Division I player this season. Freshman Davidson headlined the squad as Big Ten Freshman of the Year and a First Team All-Big Ten selection, while also claiming spots on the All-Defensive and All-Freshman Teams. Senior Kara Dunn earned All-Big Ten Second Team honors from the coaches, while Kennedy Smith joined Davidson on the All-Defensive Team.

For the 23rd consecutive year, an ESPN channel will broadcast all 67 games of the 2026 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship. This also marks the 31st straight year (since 1996) that ESPN has served as the tournament's exclusive television home. All games will also be available for streaming through the ESPN App.

NCAA NOTES

USC is 35-17 in the NCAA Tournament, with two NCAA title victories (1983 and 1984).
This is the Trojans' 20th trip to the NCAA Tournament.
USC is making a fourth consecutive NCAA appearance for the first time since a five-year run from 1991-95.
The 2025 Women of Troy were selected as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, reaching the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season.
An automatic qualifier as Pac-12 Tournament champion in 2024, USC was a No. 1 seed in the 2024 NCAA tourney for the first time since 1986, reaching the Elite Eight for the first time since 1994 and falling to UConn.
Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb has led three different programs to the NCAA Tournament — UC Santa Barbara (2009), California (seven appearances in eight seasons) and USC (2023, 2024, 2025 & 2026).
USC has played 14 other teams in the 68-team field of the 2026 NCAA Tournament, including No. 1 seed UCLA , No. 1 seed UConn, No. 1 seed South Carolina, No. 2 seed Michigan, No. 2 seed Iowa, No. 3 seed Ohio State, No. 5 seed Maryland , No. 5 seed Michigan State, No. 4 seed Minnesota, No. 6 seed Washington, No. 6 seed Notre Dame, No. 7 seed NC State, No. 8 seed Oregon and No. 11 seed Nebraska.
USC is one of 10 Big Ten teams in this year's NCAA bracket.

QUOTES:

Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb
"It's the best tournament in all of sports, I think. It's the best sporting event, the NCAA tournament. So just an absolute thrill to be involved and we never take it for granted.  I certainly don't. We're excited to play another game. We're excited to learn as much as we can about a really good Clemson team. We'll bring our energy and I think we'll see the best version of ourselves and we're excited to play game one and take it from there."

SR | G | Kara Dunn
"We know that some games in the past we could have won and we probably should have won. I feel like knowing that and knowing the things that potentially could have lost us games, I think that that gives us the power to know that we can control the things that we can control. Then going into this game, if we come in confident and we come in executing our jobs, then we have a good chance of making it far."

SO | G | Kennedy Smith
"I feel good just in general. I think picking up on what Lindsay said about practicing. I think we have really attacked the break that we did have, getting better in areas that we have weaknesses in. So we're just coming in, putting in our full effort and 100% into everything."

FR | G | Jazzy Davidson
"I'm super excited. You grow up playing basketball and watching the NCAA tournament, and it's always super electric every year. So just getting the opportunity to play in my first one, I don't take that lightly at all. I'm super excited.  I'm just going in and doing whatever I can do to help the team win."