LOS ANGELES — JuJu Watkins, USC women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb has referenced repeatedly, has faced roughly every defensive coverage known to mankind in her short 19 years on this earth. There was the Pac-12 gauntlet in her freshman year at USC. There was UConn in last year’s Elite Eight. There was Notre Dame early in this sophomore year. She has seen traps and blitzes and doubles and triples. And before all of it, there was Etiwanda High and Kennedy Smith. They were the only high school program to ever really find a way to slow Watkins in her years of prep dominance at Sierra Canyon. And Smith, the fiery, 6-foot-1 five-star forward in the class of 2024, was the key. In the final game of Watkins’ high school career in a regional semifinal, Etiwanda head coach Stan Delus stuck Smith in the left-side corner and funneled Watkins toward her. The star guard scored just 16 points as Etiwanda knocked off Sierra Canyon. “As we say ‘generational player’ in regards to JuJu – I will be honest with you,” Delus told the Southern California News Group in the winter of 2023, “and I feel that Kennedy is also there as well.” Nearly two years later, the former rivals are teammates at USC, and the lanky Smith’s defensive prowess has proved irreplaceable if Watkins and these Trojans hope to reach the heights expected of them. “She is a freak of nature – I mean, just genetically, and her work ethic,” Gottlieb said last Saturday of Smith, after USC knocked off UConn in Connecticut. After starting the first four games of USC’s season as a freshman, Smith was absent for a month after the program announced in late November she’d be out “indefinitely” with a surgery. Gottlieb had called Smith the best freshman defender she’d ever coached; the effect of her absence was immediate, with USC falling to Notre Dame as perimeter players torched the Trojans. Indefinitely, it turned out, meant all of seven games. Smith made her return against UConn last Saturday, and played a vital role in containing the Huskies’ supporting offense around Paige Bueckers and Sarah Strong, with no other UConn player scoring in double figures. Smith’s bill of health couldn’t come at a better time, as No. 4 USC (11-1, 1-0 Big Ten) heads into Big Ten play in a conference with a bevy of high-octane offenses – starting with No. 23 Michigan on Saturday and Nebraska on Wednesday, both programs ranking in the top half of the Big Ten in scoring. “When we lost her, it was a blow to sort of some of the things we could do,” Gottlieb said of Smith last Saturday. Offensively, too, Smith’s return is a boost. As defenses continue to key in on Watkins (now at 24.8 points a game on 46% shooting) and big Kiki Iriafen (averaging 20.5 points and 10.7 rebounds in her last six games), USC’s floor-spacing has become vital. The Trojans drilled nine of 16 3-pointers against UConn, with Smith hitting three. Huskies coach Geno Auriemma remarked postgame that they “made threes they don’t make.” He wasn’t wrong. Even in a high-octane offensive start, USC ranks in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten at 33% on threes. Gottlieb, though, has been repeatedly adamant she believes she has a quality 3-point-shooting team, and Smith’s ability to stretch the floor from the wings and corners is necessary to the Trojans’ offensive development. “We’ve had games where we’ve made some and games where we haven’t,” Gottlieb said last Saturday, “but obviously that opens the floor for JuJu and Kiki in a way that almost nothing else does.” Smith was a walking 20 points a night at Etiwanda. She’s averaging 10 ppg through five games at USC, her role scaled back around Watkins and Iriafen. But her contributions as a three-and-D wing are a glue that could hold USC’s roster together through conference play. Related Articles College Sports | USC’s Kyle Ford finds vindication in one shining moment College Sports | USC rallies past Texas A&M for thrilling Las Vegas Bowl victory College Sports | Las Vegas Bowl notes: USC finds itself entangled in hotel labor dispute College Sports | USC freshman RB Bryan Jackson ready for ‘go time’ against Texas A&M College Sports | USC vs. Texas A&M in the Las Vegas Bowl: Who has the edge? “I mean, for her to come back after the procedure that she had as quickly as she did,” Gottlieb said of Smith, “I can’t say enough about her fire.” No. 23 Michigan at USC When: 7 p.m. Sunday Where: Galen Center TV: Big Ten Network Nebraska at USC When: Noon Wednesday Where: Galen Center TV: Big Ten Network