USC Women's Basketball: Future Trojan Emerges As Player Of The Year Semifinalist

Lindsay Gottlieb scouted wisely...

It appears USC women's basketball head coach Lindsay Gottlieb has already achieved a massive recruiting win.

Future USC Trojans freshman Kennedy Smith, a five-star recruit native to Southern California, has been named a semifinalist for Naismith Player of the Year honors, honoring the best high school prospects in the nation, USC's official Twitter/X account reveals:

Shoutout to our girl Kennedy on being named a @NaismithTrophy Player of the Year semifinalist! pic.twitter.com/8eFcdc5gew

— USC Women's Basketball (@USCWBB) February 6, 2024

Smith, a 6'1" wing out of Etiwanda, CA, has been ranked as the sixth-best overall prospect from among the class of 2024, per ESPN. 

She played against current Trojans superstar freshman wing JuJu Watkins, then a senior at Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth, twice in the playoffs last year. Smith's Etiwanda team actually beat Sierra Canyon to capture the state title.

This 2023-24 vintage of the Trojans is currently 17-4 overall (7-4 in the Pac-12) and riding high on a three-game win streak, powered by the play of Watkins (the nation's second-leading scorer, behind only Iowa Hawkeyes superstar wing Caitlin Clark) and junior center Rayah Marshall, a midseason contender for this year's Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award. Adding the ascendant Smith, along with the rest of a pretty stacked Gottlieb recruiting class, should only serve to bolster the club's already-impressive foundation for the 2024-25 NCAA season.