Attention bandwagon NCAA basketball fans: Your guide to top-seeded USC and UCLA in the women's tournament

It's hard to live in Southern California and not have to dodge USC and UCLA alumni taking shots at each other. It may get worse during and after March Madness.

That's because each school has a top-seeded team in this year's NCAA women's basketball championship, which begins Friday. It's the first time both schools have made it to the tournament as favorites.

USC has a 28-3 record overall this season. UCLA's record is better, 30-2. But USC beat UCLA two out of three times this season.

If you're an alumni or employee of either school — and that's a lot of people in L.A. — then you might already have your loyalties set. But if you're just wading in, here's what to know as you climb aboard a bandwagon.

Top players

The Bruins have several stand-outs, but none stand taller than Lauren Betts— she's 6-foot-7 and set a UCLA record for blocks this season.

“She's constantly being fouled, attacked, you know, she gets cuts on her arms all the time,” said J. Spencer Brown, who covers the team for the Daily Bruin.

For USC, there’s JuJu Watkins. A sophomore from Los Angeles, she was the No. 2 scorer in the nation this season with an average of almost 25 points per game.

Lauren Betts of the UCLA Bruins celebrates after her team defeated USC for the Big Ten championship.

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Michael Hickey

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JuJu Watkins, the No. 2 scorer in the nation this season, makes a drive against the Bruins.

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Ric Tapia

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Highlights to make you sound smart

• USC’s two NCAA Tournament championships were back to back, in 1983 and 1984. UCLA has never won an NCAA Tournament championship.
• 2025 is the 19th season USC has made it to the NCAA Tournament.
• UCLA has made it to the NCAA Tournament in seven of the last eight seasons.
• USC's official colors are USC Cardinal and USC Gold. UCLA's official colors are UCLA Blue and UCLA Gold.

The narrative: Bruins vs. Trojans ... always

This year's rivalry is not without some cross-town controversy.

Some background: The NCAA tournament has four divisions. Each division has 16 teams. Each of those 16 teams has a placement (a seeding). So UCLA is the No. 1 seed of its division, while USC is the No. 1 seed of another division.

UCLA's sole win against USC this season, on March 9, was by five points and got UCLA a Big Ten conference trophy and ranked them No. 1 nationwide going into March Madness. That ranking affects where a school is placed in the tournament. And UCLA's placement is ever-so-slightly more prominent than USC's, despite both teams being No. 1 seeds.

“None of it makes sense to me,” USC women’s basketball Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb said this weekend, in a clip posted to social media, expressing disappointment at her team’s placement in the tournament bracket, “UCLA is number one overall, as they should be, and we beat them twice.”

Her team, she said, is focused on winning their first game of the tournament.

If both teams keep winning, the tournament bracket may lead them to face off in the semifinals.

The schedule

UCLA plays on Friday in Westwood. USC plays its first game against the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, on Saturday at USC.

• Round 2: March 23-24
• Round 3: March 28-29
• Quarterfinals (The Elite Eight): March 30-31
• Semifinals (The Final Four): April 4
• Championship: April 6

Here's the full bracket.

There is one way the tournament could end in a UCLA-USC final: Because one of the other No. 1 seeds is the University of South Carolina ... also known as USC.

Senior editor Ross Brenneman contributed to this story.