All-Pac-12 guard von Oelhoffen commits to USC

The rich just got richer.

Two-time all-Pac-12 guard Talia von Oelhoffen, a graduate transfer from Oregon State, has committed to the USC Trojans, she told ESPN Monday.

Her move helps solidify USC’s status as a national title contender in 2025, with the Trojans also adding former Stanford post Kiki Iriafen out of the portal, returning superstar JuJu Watkins and senior Rayah Marshall and bringing in the nation’s top-ranked freshmen class.

“It’s so exciting,” von Oelhoffen told ESPN. “I mean, the sky’s the limit for how good we can be… I’m super excited to take this team into the Big Ten and beyond.”

The 5-foot-11 guard from Washington averaged 10.7 points, 5.0 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game this season as a key playmaker that guided the Beavers to their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2021 and third Elite Eight since 2016. No. 3 seed Oregon State beat No. 2 seed Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 before falling to eventual national champion South Carolina by 12 in the following contest.

Oregon State, which is becoming an affiliate member of the WCC in women’s basketball upon the disintegration of the Pac-12, has eight players in the transfer portal.

Von Oelhoffen also considered Colorado, Kentucky and Louisville and took visits to all four schools before choosing USC for her graduate transfer season. After enrolling early amid the 2020-21 campaign, she has a fifth year of eligibility from the waiver the NCAA granted to student athletes amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Von Oelhoffen posted a TikTok video last Friday featuring her and Iriafen in USC uniforms on their visit; the two committed together before leaving campus, von Oelhoffen said.

“For me, it was just the opportunities in L.A., playing for Coach Lindsay,” von Oelhoffen said. “I think the pro style they play translates to the W[NBA], which is my ultimate goal.

“Just the opportunity to play point guard for potentially a national championship team under Coach Lindsay, who sends people to the W and is just so smart in so many ways and an amazing staff, amazing players, I loved everything about it.”

Von Oelhoffen provides a veteran presence at the point for a 2024-25 USC team that will skew young with seven incoming freshmen and a focal point in Watkins, only a rising sophomore. This past season the Trojans surrounded Watkins with experienced veterans in three Ivy League graduate transfers, two of whom (McKenzie Forbes and Kaitlyn Davis) were selected in the 2024 WNBA Draft.

The success of those one-year Trojans indicated to von Oelhoffen that coach Lindsay Gottlieb has “the blueprint” for how to successfully incorporate and get the most out of graduate transfers like herself despite their short stints in the program, she said.

Gottlieb, who coached at Cal before a stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA, also sent former Golden Bears Layshia Clarendon and Kristine Anigwe to the pros. The coach just signed a contract extension to stay at USC through 2030.

“In talking to Coach Lindsay, they’re exactly what I’m looking for in every way, and I was exactly what they needed: a combo guard that’s a veteran, been through the wars over my career, to help the freshmen out as they as they adjust to college basketball as everyone does,” von Oelhoffen said.

“Being able to play point guard and play wing depending on which freshmen are going and kind of be versatile in that way and just bring leadership and help them throughout the whole process is going to be super fun.”

Watkins, the national freshman of the year and a finalist for several player of the year awards, lifted the Trojans to heights not seen since the ’90s; their Elite Eight appearance, where they fell to UConn, was the first time since 1994 they’d advanced beyond the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. With the collection of talent Gottlieb has corralled in Los Angeles – now headlined by two experienced all-Pac-12 stars in Iriafen (a rising senior) and von Oelhoffen — USC hopes to earn its first national title since going back-to-back in 1983 and 1984.