Why Jazzy Davidson’s USC commitment moved Lindsay Gottlieb to tears
A bond that began four years ago led the top-ranked player in the 2025 class to choose the Trojans
Devon Henderson (OC Register) — LOS ANGELES — It was a Sunday morning in late September 2024, and USC women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb was in her campus office. Across from her sat Jazzy Davidson – the top-ranked player in the 2025 class.
Davidson had been on campus in February for an official visit but asked to come back seven months later on her own dime for an unofficial trip.
Gottlieb, one of the nation’s most successful women’s basketball coaches, is used to attracting elite talent. Since taking over the program in 2021, she has led USC to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, including two runs to the Elite Eight, and a revival powered by 2023’s No. 1 recruit, JuJu Watkins – already a revered figure in the sport.
Gottlieb had already said her goodbyes to Davidson, her mother, and her grandmother the night before, because the family was leaving Sunday to go back home to Oregon.
So she didn’t exactly know why she was at work on her day off.
Davidson had texted that morning, saying she had forgotten something in the office and wanted to talk alone, sparking curiosity.
“I got you a thank-you card,” Davidson said, handing her a note.
Gottlieb smiled, tucking it aside for later.
“No,” Davidson said. “I want you to open it now.”
She did. It was warm, personal – a reflection of a bond that started in a Brooklyn zoo years earlier. Then Gottlieb reached the last line.
“I’m committing here,” it read.
Gottlieb began to happily cry.
Why did a coach who was already so successful, leading a star-laden roster, cry at this specific commitment?
Well, the moment was special, and the gesture was nice.
But it’s deeper than that.
“It was special for her to take the time to tell me in person,” Gottlieb said. “To want to tell me with a cute note and just take the time to do it. It was like no other commitment I’ve gotten.”
The turning point
Born Nov. 6, 2006, in Clackamas, Oregon, Jasmine “Jazzy” Davidson didn’t set out to be a basketball player. Her mother, Monica, kept her only child busy with a carousel of activities – soccer, singing lessons, piano and gymnastics.
“I honestly didn’t have that much interest in basketball at first,” Davidson said.
But she was tall and kept growing.
Now a 6-foot-1 stretch forward with deft ball-handling skills and the ability to “glide” past defenders, as Gottlieb put it, before finishing at the rim or pulling up from midrange, she still towers over most peers. Even as a child, her height set her apart, and her mother noticed.
“My mom had me in all kinds of stuff,” Davidson said. “She said, ‘She’s tall, let’s sign her up for basketball.’”
What began as an after-school activity became an obsession and purpose. As friendships deepened and her skills sharpened, her love for the game expanded.
Well, friendships and Sabrina Ionescu.
Clackamas is a 20-minute drive from Portland, tucked between fir-lined hills and farmland. A small, tight-knit emerald jewel of the Pacific Northwest. Davidson calls it “very green.”
The WNBA’s Seattle Storm were only three hours north, but Davidson’s gaze stayed about 100 miles south toward Eugene. She watched the “triple-double queen” carve up college record books in Oregon green and yellow. Ionescu was a two-time Wooden Award winner and a Naismith honoree, finishing her college career with an NCAA record 26 triple-doubles.
Davidson was there for all of it.
“I didn’t watch much WNBA growing up,” she said. “I watched the Oregon Ducks when Sabrina was there. They were the big thing in Oregon. My family and I would drive down to all her games and watch. She really inspired me.”
She was there in the Matthew Knight Arena stands on the night when Ionescu dropped 30 points in an exhibition upset of Team USA in 2019. So, like Gottlieb, she knows generational talent.
By seventh grade, Davidson was beginning to become one herself.
As a middle schooler, she was already competing in national tournaments at the 17U level with Northwest Select. She competed not just against older players, but against some of the nation’s best. As she dominated, the realization hit: Her talent outpaced her peers, which sparked a new hunger.
“That was my turning point,” Davidson said. “It’s when I started seeing how I stacked up against some of the best kids in the country. It was a huge sign that I could actually play Division I basketball and take it further.”
So she set her goals: WNBA, All-Star, Olympian.
And never forgot them.
Motivated by goals
Basketball is a merciless taskmaster, demanding an almost inhuman tally of hours to perfect. Long hours in the gym and the weight room. Thousands upon thousands of shots. A commitment to a never-satiated pursuit of greatness.
Purpose must outweigh motivation because motivation will abandon you.
Even today, as Davidson has started her daily college workouts with the Trojans, she said some days – if not every day – can be a challenge to find inspiration.
But her purpose hasn’t wavered.
“My goals,” Davidson said, “that’s what it requires of me. I want to be a WNBA player. I want to be a WNBA All-Star. I want to be an Olympian. I know the work that you have to put in to achieve those goals, and that’s what motivates me every day.”
She began ascending recruiting boards. Entering Clackamas High, she was ranked No. 1 in the country on ESPN’s initial class rankings. Her AAU exploits had garnered attention from college coaches nationwide.
As Davidson began her Clackamas career, so did a newly hired college coach who was looking to return the USC program to powerhouse status – one who saw Davidson as a program-defining player and deemed her a “priority” early in her tenure.
Davidson’s hero, Ionescu, obliterated the record books in Oregon and left an indelible legacy replete with awards. What Davidson did in her four years at Clackamas reads similarly.
She was an indomitable force during her freshman season. She averaged 22.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.1 steals, 2.7 assists, and 1.4 blocked shots per game, recorded nine double-doubles, and was named Oregon Gatorade Player of the Year.
Then she won the Player of the Year award again.
Then again.
And again.
During her junior year, she led Clackamas to its first Class 6A state championship in 2023. By the time her senior season was over, she left the program with career averages of 25.1 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.4 steals, 2.5 assists, and 1.4 blocks.
She was an unstoppable offensive engine, an overwhelming rebounding presence and a game-wrecking defensive anchor.
She was a McDonald’s All-American, still ESPN’s top-ranked recruit, and had offers from every program in the country. From Day One, she was the type of player for whom many coaches wanted to build their programs.
Now, Davidson is the next star joining a team already led by a transformative force – though Watkins, recovering from a torn ACL suffered in March, might not take the court next season, and Gottlieb said she won’t rush her return.
The coach already has a star joining an immensely talented roster to take over in the interim. And another after Davidson. Saniyah Hall, the top-ranked player in the 2026 class, has already committed to USC as well.
So it begs the original question: Why did Gottlieb cry tears of joy when specifically Davidson committed?
‘It was just a no-brainer’
This recruitment was more than a phenom choosing USC – it was the result of a relationship forged years ago, the culmination of a long-term plan, and a deeply personal fulfillment.
“USC has wanted me for as long as I can remember,” Davidson said. “I’ve had a long and great relationship with Coach Lindsay. It was just a no-brainer.”
It was August 2021, and Gottlieb was in New York visiting family, just two months after being named USC’s coach. The former NBA assistant coach was taking the reins of a program that had gone nearly a decade without an NCAA Tournament appearance and was coming off an 11-12 season in 2020-21.
She was in Brooklyn at, ironically, Prospect Park Zoo when her phone buzzed.
A high school freshman from Oregon was calling. NCAA rules said coaches couldn’t contact first, but players could. So she slipped away from family to take it.
This call mattered.
It was a prospect she had seen on her very first recruiting trip. One, she had “made a priority right away.” As they spoke, Gottlieb set a quiet, personal goal for the team she now led.
“I remember thinking,” she said, “I hope I can get this program good enough, where she would consider us.”
That recruit was going to be the player she would measure her success by in building the Trojans. USC was going to be constructed for this player.
Just over a year later, Watkins committed to USC and ignited the program’s return to national prominence. She was a monumental recruiting win.
But that wasn’t JuJu on the other end of this phone call.
Since the beginning, Jazzy Davidson had always been the benchmark.
Now she’s officially a Trojan.
ocregister.com
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Holy smoke, in two years, will there be enough basketballs on the court for Watkins, Davidson and Hall to play their game? I wouldn’t want to be the playmaking guard bringing the ball up court and having to decide who gets the pass? What if all 3-are asking for the ball? Holy sh#t now what?
Nice problem to have. Better than, if Watkins doesn’t get it, we have no chance!
I think this is where the coaching prowess of Gotlieb overcomes the personal desires of the individual players and they all learn how to play together. If she succeeds USC is going to the finals.