LOS ANGELES — Just a few short years ago, USC’s best shooter couldn’t really shoot a basketball.
That’s not harsh. Avery Howell will tell you herself. She could make one, sure. But her knees would collapse inward as she loaded up, almost knocking together. Her right arm would swoop across the left side of her face as she released.
And for years playing at Boise High, it masked the heady potential in her 6-foot-tall frame, collegiate coaches uncertain if Howell was a true diamond in the rough of Idaho public school basketball.
And this USC team (20-2, 10-1 Big Ten), ranked seventh in the country, would have nowhere near the offensive ceiling it does now if the frizzy-haired freshman was still flinging shots from the corner like UCLA-era Lonzo Ball. But in high school, Howell had a key to her club team Meta Hoops’ gym, tucked off State Street under the Boise mountains. She structured her schedule so she’d have her first period free, and went to sleep each night at 8:30, and beat the dawn every morning to get up shots down on State Street.
“She demands a lot out of herself,” Boise High coach Kim Brydges said of Howell, “and she’s really adaptive, as much as possible. If she sees a weakness in her game, she’s not afraid of that. She’s instead going to work 10 times harder.”
In the span of a season, from her junior to her senior year in Boise, Howell went from making a 3-pointer a game to hitting three a night, becoming a top 2024 prospect and the second girl ever from Idaho to be named a McDonald’s All-American. And her minutes have steadily increased across her freshman season at USC, as she’s become the most consistent catch-and-shoot threat on Lindsay Gottlieb’s roster. No Trojan who’s taken more than 10 threes is shooting above even 35% from deep – except Howell, who’s up to 39% on four attempts a game.
She brought a veteran’s confidence to USC, setting a lofty goal to earn consistent minutes in her freshman year, Brydges said. And Howell figured out “pretty early on,” as she reflected, that the way for her to stick on the floor at the Galen Center was to space it. Sophomore star JuJu Watkins’ drives attract two or three defenders in the lane, and senior star Kiki Iriafen’s face-ups attract two or three defenders in the post, and Gottlieb’s offense has needed space to properly flow.
Enter Howell, averaging 13 points a game on a scalding 60% from deep in her last four games.
“Honestly, anyone on our team can get a bucket if they wanted to,” Howell said after a Jan. 30 win over Minnesota. “So I feel like, it’s just being a pressure release. And I think I’m getting better at that.”
The roster, Howell reflected, is learning to play with each other. Learning each other’s offensive habits. It’s both encouraging and concerning at once, because the message of learning each other has been echoed for months now, and USC still looked out of rhythm in a Sunday loss to Iowa in which it shot 35% from the floor. Watkins has hit a slight slump, shooting 35.2% in her last five games, and Iriafen still hasn’t quite found a consistent shot diet with a month before the postseason.
Gottlieb has repeatedly expressed confidence in USC’s ability to space the floor for Watkins and Iriafen, despite ranking in the lower half of the Big Ten in 3-point percentage. Freshman Kennedy Smith (shooting 31% from three) and senior Talia Von Oelhoffen (28%) are better shooters than their percentages suggest. In any case, though, Howell has more than earned her shot at meaningful March minutes.
“She wanted to win a national championship,” Brydges said of Howell’s original commitment to USC. “And she’s really proud to be a part, a cog of that machine.”
No. 8 Ohio State at No. 7 USC
When: 6 p.m. Saturday
Where: Galen Center
TV/radio: FOX (Ch. 11)/USCTrojans.com