ALBANY – Destiny Littleton has two horses in this race: Top-seed USC and top-seed USC.
Not a typo.
The La Jolla native played for both the USC Trojans (last season, as a grad transfer) and spent the three years before that with the South Carolina Gamecocks (winning a championship in 2022, as a redshirt senior).
So naturally, when Littleton filled out her bracket between twice-a-day practices and games with her German pro team, the Saarlouis Royals, she steered both USCs into the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament championship game on April 7 in Cleveland.
Bracket’s in great shape still. South Carolina defeated Oregon State, 70-58, on Sunday in Albany, N.Y., and USC moved on, 74-70, in a Sweet 16 nail-biter Saturday in Portland, Ore. The Trojans now need to get past No. 3 Connecticut on Monday to join the Gamecocks, North Carolina State and either Iowa or LSU in the Final Four.
What happens if her prediction comes true?
“Oh man, the question I’ve been asked every since the tournament started, ‘Who will you go for?’” Littleton said by phone Sunday. “Honestly, whoever wins, I’ll be happy. I’m not rooting for one or another. In a perfect world, it’ll be a tie game and both win the championship. But the world’s not perfect.”
Real ones know, Dest! 2 fan bases love you.
— Lindsay Gottlieb (@CoachLindsayG) March 25, 2024
That isn’t necessarily the response that some fans might want to hear, but it’s how she feels.
“I have a degree from the University of South Carolina and I have a degree from Southern Cal,” Littleton said. “I am a proud alumni of both institutions and I have no negative things to say about anyone; they’re both my families.”
Thing is, she’s been asked similar questions about who she’d choose in the past.
A certain high-profile recruit paid a visit to USC last year and Littleton said she spent a good deal of time discussing the respective ’SC programs with that girl’s parents, Robert and Sari Watkins.
She told JuJu’s family the truth, she said: If they were choosing between USC and USC, they couldn’t go wrong.
WATKINS is a dawg 😈😈
— Destiny Littleton (@dstnylttltn24) March 31, 2024
But now? Littleton is thrilled the Watts-native Watkins stayed home. The former Trojan guard said she’s been up at 3 a.m. all season to watch the current Trojans’ games, making use of a fubo account gifted her by a fan and cheering like a madwoman alone or with her American teammate, former Bruin Jaelynn Penn.
“I’m a California baby, too, so I love when players stay home,” said Littleton, who’d initially committed to USC out of The Bishop’s School, from where she graduated in 2017 – overcoming long odds and a challenging childhood – as an established scholar and as the leading scorer in California high school history, with 4,300 points.
“It’s hard to be the No. 1 player in your class going to a school that is not on the map, that no one really considers, and she did it,” Littleton said. “She was a really big person to join the Trojans. And now watching them, I’m like a proud mom, it’s amazing to see – the complete turnaround of the program in a short amount of time.
“I’m like, ‘Wow, this is what I went to USC for, to try to put them back on the map.’ And now they’re just exceeding that … win by win, small heart attack by small heart attack, they’re inching their way to the national championship game!”
A year ago, Littleton couldn’t have imagined that USC would be so close so soon – though she’s not altogether surprised.
“Geezy (aka Coach Lindsay Gottlieb) has completely turned this program around from no one even remembering who the Trojans were to everyone needing to know, ‘When do they play? What channel are they on? Who are they playing? I don’t even care who they’re playing, I just want to watch, I want to see JuJu and the Nerds.’
“We were trying to put USC on the map, and trying to win again, and for the most part we did, but now to see it catapult like it has, that’s a testament to Geezy and her coaching staff.”
Shoutout too, Littleton said, to Clarice Akunwafo, the 6-foot-6 aspiring surgeon whom she’d taken under her wing last season and who’s come up big in key moments this postseason.
A year ago, Littleton helped USC reach the NCAA postseason for the first time since 2014, providing leadership, championship experience and averaging 14 points and 3.7 assist per game.
And USC helped her revive her basketball career.
After graduating from South Carolina in 2022, Littleton was on the fence about whether to keep hooping.
The 5-foot-9 guard was leaning, actually, toward studying medicine, but when Gottlieb invited her to camp to feel it out, Littleton agreed, and despite some early hesitation, decided to play.
She’s so glad she did.
She’ll be back in the United States in a few days, she said, following her first grueling but rewarding season of pro ball overseas, eight months of development that she hopes will help bring her closer to achieving her WNBA dream.
“For sure, parts of my game definitely matured,” Littleton said. “And I think, year by year, I’m just getting better and better. There’s still things that I need to work on, but as far as my game goes, it’s good to see that I’m getting better.”
That goes for Littleton and the USC in L.A.
You never know what someone’s going through. That smart kid? The hoops star breaking records? There was so much Destiny Littleton (@dstnylttltn24) was hiding until recently.
On the now-speakable resilience of @USCWBB’s leading voice.https://t.co/MiipN7CZqC
— Mirjam Swanson (@MirjamSwanson) February 24, 2023
