Penn graduate Kayla Padilla keeping an ‘underdog mentality’ with USC in Sweet 16

Kayla Padilla danced around the perimeter of the floor at Galen Center on Monday night, raising her arms and celebrating with the crowd in Los Angeles.

She and the rest of Southern California women’s basketball had earned the right to keep dancing a little longer, after knocking off eighth-seeded Kansas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Just under a year and a half ago, Padilla had been on that same floor wearing a Penn jersey. The Quakers’ West Coast road trip in November 2022 had doubled as a homecoming for the then-senior guard from Torrance, Calif.

Ivy League rules prevented Padilla from spending her fifth year of eligibility at Penn. She had plenty of options and didn’t make any official decisions until her senior season ended, but a potential return to her home state had been at the back of her mind, even during that game.

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Even Padilla couldn’t have predicted what has happened since she committed to USC in April. Just in this last whirlwind of a month, the Trojans cut down the nets at the Pac-12 Tournament, earned a top seed and hosting rights in March Madness, and now are heading to the Sweet 16.

“It’s always been my dream since I was little to cut down the nets in some sort of fashion, and wish I had the chance to do that at Penn,” Padilla said. “I think that was, so far at least, a highlight of the season. But hopefully, there’s more highlights to come.”

Padilla and Southern Cal will take on fifth-seeded Baylor in the Portland 3 Regional on Saturday (5:30 p.m., ESPN).

Padilla knew before committing to USC that her role on the Trojans would differ from what she was used to at Penn. Playing alongside one of the top players in the nation in All-American freshman JuJu Watkins, Padilla is no longer the primary scoring option.

But when called upon, she comes up clutch. Padilla has the highest three-point percentage in any season of her career (44.4%), with a lower shot volume compared to her Palestra days.

“The fact that she’s capable of adapting in any way possible is no surprise at all,” Penn coach Mike McLaughlin said in an interview Thursday. “I had that conversation with her coach [Lindsay Gottlieb] prior to going out there. Whatever you need her to do, she will do to her best ability. And they need her to play a role there, make open threes, play a lot more point guard. She’s done that.

“She’s one of the reasons that they’re one of the best teams in the country.”

Including Padilla and Watkins, four members of the Trojans’ typical starting lineup are new faces this season. USC welcomed two other transfers from Ivy League programs, in Kaitlyn Davis (Columbia) and McKenzie Forbes (Harvard).

Even those returning to the lineup from last season are now entering new territory, as this Sweet 16 trip will be a first for Southern Cal since 1994.

“I communicated to Coach Lindsay at the beginning of the process that I just wanted to win,” Padilla said. “So I’m really willing to fit any sort of role or responsibility, to do whatever it took to contribute. ... I’ve been really honored to have this role that I’ve had, and to make the sort of impact I’ve been having on this team.”

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Padilla had exactly two games of postseason college basketball experience under her belt when she arrived in Los Angeles. Both were with Penn in 2023, and both were losses: a first-round Ivy Madness loss to Princeton, and a first-round WNIT loss to Richmond a week later.

“I don’t think the stage matters,” McLaughlin said. “I don’t think the moment matters to her, and she’s very mature. She knows she can handle any situation at this point.”

A lot of that limited experience was out of Padilla’s control. COVID-19 derailed her first two years of college, so an Ivy postseason hadn’t even existed as an option. Her junior year, Penn finished 7-7 in conference and failed to qualify for the Ivy League tournament.

Although she may be at the top of the tournament field now with USC, Padilla plays like she still has something to prove.

“We’re just trying to strike that balance of still having the confidence of entering this tournament as a one seed, but sort of having the same underdog mentality,” Padilla said. “It’s having a chip on our shoulder as a 16 seed would.”

The three Ivy Leaguers-turned-Trojans know a thing or two about being considered underdogs, and they’re hoping the success they’ve found this season will help change the predominant narratives around Ivy League basketball.

Her old team kept close tabs on her success, McLaughlin said, and they would regularly watch her games in the locker room. It went both ways: Padilla watched as many Penn games as she could manage.

She, Davis, and Forbes were thrilled when Columbia popped up with an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament during the selection show. With Columbia joining conference champion Princeton, it marked the first time the Ivy League has earned multiple bids since 2016.

Padilla also lends words of advice to her old Penn teammate, Jordan Obi, who just finished her senior season with first team All-Ivy honors and has entered the transfer portal. Like Padilla, Obi is a highly sought-after graduate transfer.

“We hope it can continue to shine a light on how good Ivy League basketball is,” Padilla said. “Players coming from that conference can really make an impact on the Power 5 stage.”