USC vs. UCLA 3 for Big Ten championship is as good as it gets in college basketball

INDIANAPOLIS — The Battle for L.A. has moved to the Midwest.

Eight days after USC beat UCLA, completing a sweep of the regular-season series and clinching its first Big Ten title, the crosstown rivals will face off again with far more than city bragging rights at stake. The conference tournament championship and the automatic NCAA bid that goes with it, for starters. A No. 1 seed, too.

Maybe even the overall No. 1, given the chaos occurring in other conference tournaments.  

“Right after (last weekend’s) game I said, ‘Absolutely. I’d love another opportunity,’ ” UCLA coach Cori Close said Saturday night, after her team made it a certainty with a 75-46 rout of Ohio State in the semifinals.

“At this time of year, you want to have the best kind of dress rehearsal for March Madness and the NCAA Tournament as you can,” Close said. “Obviously they’re our only two losses. Obviously they’re our crosstown rival. Obviously this is for a conference tournament championship. There’s just so many levels to it.

“But if you’re a real competitor, you want to be tested against the very best and you want to have opportunities to conquer your previous adversities. And that’s exactly what we’re getting.”

USC has been careful all week not to say anything that could end up on a whiteboard in UCLA’s locker room. But c’mon. Los Angeles is the city of stars, and few are bigger than the Trojans these days. Why would they want to relinquish that spotlight?

“We have three goals: winning the regular season, winning the conference tournament and winning the NCAA Tournament,” Kiki Iriafen said after her big third quarter powered USC to an 82-70 semifinal win over Michigan that was tighter than the score indicated.

“I’m just happy we’re in the title game.”

Fine. Let USC play it straight. The rest of us will do the happy dance that we’re getting round three of this rivalry.

Apologies to the Buckeyes and Michigan, but USC and UCLA have been in a class by themselves all season. Any chance to watch them play each other is a treat.

UCLA spent most of the season at No. 1, not losing until mid-February, and has one of the best defensive players in the country in Lauren Betts. USC is playing as well as anyone down the stretch, and JuJu Watkins is the most exciting player in college basketball. Men’s or women’s.

Watkins is sublime every game — despite having an “off” night, she finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and three assists against Michigan on Saturday — but saves her signature performances for UCLA. In the Feb. 13 game, which was UCLA’s first loss, Watkins had 38 points, 11 rebounds and eight blocks. Eight!

Monstrous as that performance was, USC’s win last weekend was even more dispiriting for the Bruins. They held Watkins to just 30 points, three blocks and three boards, yet still lost by double figures in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated.

It was the kind of result that could have sent UCLA into a spiral. Instead, Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez called a players-only film session Monday morning, a clear-the-air session the Bruins said was both necessary and effective.

They won their first two games at the Big Ten tournament by double figures, and played with more energy and grit.

But Sunday will be the real test.

“We obviously felt really badly about how we played them the last time and how we showed up, and we don’t ever want to feel that again,” Betts said.

No matter who wins Sunday, both teams will make the NCAA Tournament. Both teams will host first- and second-round games, and neither is likely to be lower than a 2-seed.

There is a difference, however, between riding a wave of momentum into the tournament and going in licking your wounds. Nothing elates more than a win over your biggest rival. Nothing stings more than a loss to them.

The Battle for L.A. continues. Buckle up.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

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