After an up-and-down season without its injured superstar, USC still managed to make it back to the NCAA tournament. But its path won’t get any smoother from here.

The Trojans clinched a berth for the fourth straight season on Sunday. They’ll be a No. 9 seed, set to face No. 8-seed Clemson in Columbia, S.C., on Saturday.

While the Trojans will have to travel across the country to take on Clemson, the Tigers will only have a two-hour drive from their campus.

“We won’t have the home-court advantage, obviously,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “But we’ll bring our West Coast juice. We’ll bring our energy. And I think we’ll see the best version of ourselves.”

A win in that game would set up a rematch in Columbia with No. 1-seed South Carolina, who beat the Trojans handily when they met in November.

History won’t be on the Trojans’ side in that matchup, either. Only twice in the last 15 years has a No. 8 or No. 9 seed in the women’s tournament upset a No. 1.

But USC isn’t a run-of-the-mill ninth seed, either. The Trojans played one of the nation’s toughest schedules, with 15 games against teams seeded higher than them in the tournament. Four of those were against No. 1 seeds, all losses.

“We intentionally put ourselves in the situation to play the best teams out there because that’s what we want to be ready for,” Gottlieb said. “We’re not afraid of really good teams.”

Just a year ago, USC entered March as one of the favorites to win the national title. But then JuJu Watkins injured her knee in the second round. The injury forced her to sit out the entire season, throwing a serious wrench in USC’s plans for the 2025-26 season.

The Trojans relied on another dazzling young talent, Jazzy Davidson, to carry them to March instead. And Davidson delivered, leading the Trojans in points (17.6), rebounds (5.6), assists (4.2), blocks (2) and steals (2). She was even named Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

USC opened the season 10-3, with two of those losses coming against two No. 1 seeds, Connecticut and South Carolina. But the rest of the Big Ten season would prove to be a frustrating affair. The Trojans lost six of seven, before bouncing back to win six straight. They ultimately ended the regular season on a four-game losing streak, stumbling their way to a one-and-done finish in the Big Ten tournament.

But that winding path no longer mattered as of Sunday. USC made the NCAA tournament, in spite of everything working against it.

Now, with its slate clean, the Trojans had a new rallying cry ahead of the tournament.

“Be the team,” guard Kara Dunn said, “that someone else doesn’t want to play.”