Earlier than she got here to USC, it had by no means occurred to Jazzy Davidson how charmed her basketball upbringing had been. Rising up outdoors of Portland, almost all of her years taking part in the sport had been spent with the identical tight-knit group of women — women who’d been finest associates since earlier than the fifth grade and who, in spite of everything that point, might anticipate her each transfer earlier than she made it.
“They’re mainly my sisters,” Davidson says.
They’d been that manner just about way back to she might keep in mind. Allie, she met in kindergarten. She and Sara joined the identical squad in second grade. By 10, Dylan, Reyce and Avery had been on the membership workforce, too. For the following eight years or so, up by way of March’s Oregon women 6A state championship sport, they had been inseparable, the six of them spending virtually each waking second collectively.
However now, just a few days earlier than the beginning of her freshman season at USC, Davidson is in Los Angeles, whereas her former teammates are scattered throughout a number of states taking part in with varied different Division I and NAIA colleges. It’s an odd feeling, she admits, however an exciting one, too — to be right here with a brand new workforce, persevering with her basketball journey with out the ladies who’d been there the entire manner.
Reyce Mogel, left, Avery Peterson, Dylan Mogel and Jazzy Davidson performed collectively on youth and highschool groups.
(Courtesy of Reyce Mogel)
“Being right here made me understand how comfy I used to be with them,” Davidson mentioned. “It’s positively completely different now, positively a studying expertise.”
Inside that well-worn dynamic, Davidson developed into one of many high ladies’s hoops prospects within the nation, all whereas she and her associates led Clackamas Excessive on an unprecedented, four-year run of success. Now, early in her freshman season at USC, Davidson steps into circumstances that nobody would have anticipated when she signed with the college.
On the time, the expectation was that she could possibly be introduced alongside as a proficient No. 2 whereas the Trojans’ generational star JuJu Watkins commanded all the skin noise and nightly double groups. However then Watkins injured her knee in March, forcing her to sit down out the 2025-26 season. Abruptly, the Trojans’ high prospect additionally grew to become their saving grace.
Nobody, for the file, is saying that out loud at USC. Nor does anybody within the constructing count on Davidson to step seamlessly into Watkins’ sneakers.
“These are very distinctive sneakers,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb says. “However the truth that Jazzy can step into our program and already simply make a extremely distinctive and unbelievable impression on all people is fairly wild.”
By her personal admission, Davidson has by no means been the quickest to heat up with new individuals. Most outdoors of her circle would in all probability describe her as “quiet” or “reserved.” It’s solely when you get to know her that you just actually see who she is and what she’s able to.
USC bought a quick glimpse Sunday, with the Trojans trailing by some extent to No. 9 North Carolina State and 10 seconds on the clock. Popping out of a timeout, the 6-1 Davidson reduce swiftly by way of two defenders towards the basket, caught an inbound go and, with out taking a step, laid within the game-winning bucket.
The stage will get even greater on Saturday, when No. 8 USC meets No. 2 South Carolina at Crypto Area within the first of a number of grueling exams awaiting on a slate that features 4 video games towards the highest three groups within the Related Press preseason high 25 ballot. Any hope of the Trojans reaching the identical heights as final season hinges partly on their star freshman shortly discovering her potential.
Nobody has seen Davidson fulfill that promise like the ladies who’ve been there for the reason that begin. So far as they’re involved, it gained’t be lengthy earlier than the world sees what they’ve.
“If you realize Jazzy,” says Allie Roden, now a freshman guard at Colorado State, “you realize she will do something she needs, just about.”
When Davidson’s mom noticed that her 5-year outdated daughter was unusually tall, she signed Jasmine — who would later be often called Jazzy — up for basketball. Roden was on that first workforce. She has seen the video proof of the 2 of them, each nonetheless in kindergarten, launching basketballs over their heads on the backboard.
“We had been horrible,” Roden says with fun, “however we thought we had been actually nice.”
Davidson moved down the road from Roden within the fourth grade, and by that time, she’d figured one thing out. Sufficient no less than to be a magnet for Clackamas Excessive coach Korey Landolt, whose daughter performed for a similar membership program.
“I noticed [Davidson] working with a coach and simply thought, ‘Huh, this child is completely different,’” Landolt says.
From left to proper, Avery Peterson, Sara Barhoum, Dylan Mogel, Jazzy Davidson, Reyce Mogel, Allie Roden performed collectively for years, main Clackamas Excessive in Oregon to a state championship.
(Courtesy of Reyce Mogel)
As soon as the others joined forces a yr afterward the membership workforce Northwest Choose, there wasn’t a lot anybody might do to cease them. The six women appeared to suit seamlessly collectively on the court docket. Off it, Roden says, “we had been inseparable just about as quickly as we met.” She doesn’t recall their workforce shedding a sport towards their age group for 2 full years at one level.
It was round that point that Davidson separated herself from the pack as a prospect. She’d grown to 5-foot-10 by the seventh grade, just for the pandemic to close down primarily all the state, together with all highschool sports activities.
So Davidson threw herself into basketball. She and Sara Barhoum, who’s now a freshman at Oregon, began understanding collectively throughout free time between on-line courses, doing what she might so as to add energy to her spindly body. Then they’d shoot collectively at night time, every pushing the opposite to enhance.
“It was a giant time for me,” Davidson says. “That was once I honed in on every little thing.”
Two or thrice monthly, the workforce would journey out of state to check themselves. On one significantly memorable journey, simply the six of them entered a event in Dana Level. They ended up successful the entire thing, beating a number of the nation’s finest groups, regardless of the very fact they’d stayed up late taking part in Heads Up and had been sunburned from a seaside go to the day earlier than.
These center college journeys solely cemented their bond — in addition to Davidson’s place as a high prospect. By her freshman season, with all of them collectively at Clackamas Excessive, the key was out. School coaches got here calling. Gottlieb, who had simply taken the job at USC, was one.
Even then, there was a sure grace with which Davidson performed the sport — as if it flowed from her naturally. “She’s so fluid,” Gottlieb explains. “She glides.” However there was additionally a fearlessness in attending to the rim towards a lot older, stronger gamers.
“She needed to maintain her personal,” Landolt says. “However individuals couldn’t cease her inside. They couldn’t cease her outdoors. She was simply so versatile. She might do every little thing.”
As a gangly freshman, Davidson stuffed the stat sheet with 22 factors, eight rebounds, 4 steals, three assists and one block per sport on her technique to being named Oregon’s Gatorade Participant of the 12 months. She gained the award once more as a sophomore … in addition to the following two years after that.
When these 4 years had been up, Davidson was the all-time main scorer in Oregon Class 6A women basketball historical past with 2,726 factors. Nonetheless, a few of her teammates contend she was even higher on the defensive finish.
“Jazzy is sweet at every little thing she does,” Barhoum mentioned. “However she’s in all probability the most effective defender I’ve ever seen.”
USC guard Jazzy Davidson blocks a shot by North Carolina State’s Devyn Quigley on Nov. 9 in Charlotte, N.C.
(Lance King / Getty Photos)
The ladies performed on the identical workforce for six years when Clackamas made a run to the 6A state championship sport. They’d spent a lot time with one another, their coach says, that it could possibly be “a blessing and a curse.” Typically, they bickered like sisters, too.
Landolt would urge them to hang around with different associates, solely half-kidding. However all that point collectively made their connection on the court docket just about telepathic.
“There have been so many passes I threw to Jazzy that nobody else would’ve caught, however she was simply there.” mentioned Reyce Mogel, who now performs at Southern Oregon. “We had been at all times on the identical web page. And never simply me and Jazzy. All people.”
Davidson was on the bench, in foul bother, for an extended stretch of the state championship sport towards South Medford. However she delivered two key blocks within the remaining minute as Clackamas gained its first state title.
Two years later, once they returned to the state championship as seniors, Davidson was once more pressured to sit down for an extended interval after twisting her ankle. This time, her absence “took the wind out of everybody’s sails,” Landolt says. Clackamas blew a 19-point, third-quarter lead from there, at the same time as a hobbled Davidson tried to provide it a go within the remaining minutes.
The six women discovered one another after the ultimate buzzer, heartbroken. They knew it will be the final time.
Their remaining file collectively at Clackamas: 102-14.
“All of us had been hugging,” Barhoum says, “and simply saying to one another, we’re all off to do higher issues. All of us made historical past. And now all people goes to make historical past some other place.”
They might stay aside now, however the six women, all now taking part in on separate for faculty basketball packages, nonetheless speak on a regular basis.
“I FaceTime certainly one of them no less than on daily basis,” Davidson says.
Her Trojan teammates are nonetheless attending to know her, nonetheless studying her tendencies. That can include time. However the purpose she in the end selected USC, over each different high program, was how a lot it felt like dwelling.
By two video games, Davidson appears to have settled seamlessly right into a starring function at USC, inviting the inevitable comparisons to Watkins that Gottlieb would quite keep away from.
USC guard Jazzy Davidson places up a three-point shot towards North Carolina State on Nov. 9 in Charlotte, N.C.
(Lance King / Getty Photos)
“You do not want to be something apart from what your finest self is,” Gottlieb insists.
Her associates have seen up shut how far Davidson can take a workforce at her finest. However nobody, not even the six of them, perceive the circumstances Davidson has stepped into fairly like Watkins.
Her recommendation was easy. However it nonetheless resonated with Davidson on the doorstep of the season.
“She simply instructed me to not be concerned about any of this,” Davidson says. “You’re good. Simply go play the way you play, and also you’ll be nice.”
