Kiki Iriafen tried to play coy. But the man serenading her new USC teammates and coaches over dinner in the back room of their swanky Paris restaurant had just brought out an extra microphone. And now teammates were egging her on.
She brushed them off at first. But they knew her well enough already to know she couldn’t resist.
So on the eve of USC’s season, Iriafen stood up, grabbed the mic and joined in singing along with the Fugees’ “Killing Me Softly.” She walked the aisle, working the backroom of the restaurant as she belted it out. By the final refrain, the whole room was singing with her.
It was just the sort of spotlight-stealing performance that her Trojans teammates would come to expect from the star forward over a stellar 25-2 season at USC.
“That’s just unapologetically Kiki,” senior Rayah Marshall explains.
Read more: Kiki Iriafen helps power No. 6 USC to comeback victory over Washington
And to think, when she transferred from Stanford last spring, it wasn’t clear how Iriafen — a likely top-five pick in the upcoming WNBA draft — would fit with a team that already boasted one ball-dominant star in JuJu Watkins. But by late February, with the Trojans No. 4 in the country and a Big Ten title on the line Saturday against No. 2 UCLA, Iriafen had become an inextricable part of their national title pursuit — and not just for her nearly nightly double-doubles.
“Kiki brings such a joy, such an effervescence,” coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “We try not to take that for granted.”
Stepping into the spotlight never was a problem for the perpetually sunny Iriafen. But finding where she fit at USC proved more of a process, one that took time and tested her mental toughness.
It started well before that Paris trip, before she’d even committed to USC. Legendary coach Tara VanderVeer had just retired at Stanford, and Iriafen, an L.A. native and former Harvard-Westlake standout, was considering both USC and UCLA when Watkins gave her a call. The two had crossed paths many times as part of the city’s hoops scene but they’d never played on the same squad.
Over several conversations, they talked about their fit together and their goals. Iriafen even talked to Watkins’ family. The prospect of a partnership was tempting: She’d made the Final Four as a freshman at Stanford but played just a single minute in the Cardinal’s championship loss. Two years had flown by without a return trip.
“I just felt like I was still missing something,” Iriafen said.
Together, Watkins and Iriafen knew they had the potential to form one of the most potent one-two punches in college basketball. They also acknowledged that would require some sacrifice. Even if neither totally understood at the time what that would look like in practice.
“The important thing was we were aligned on the same goals,” Iriafen said. “Whatever it takes to win a national championship, whatever it takes to win, that’s what we want. We both wanted that very badly. If I really cared about the extra stuff, the stats and all that stuff, I would’ve just stayed where I was at. But I really wanted to end my college career with a bang.”
It felt seamless at first. USC teammates went out of their way to make her feel welcome.
“From the moment I got here,” Iriafen says, “it was like, ‘We want you here, we value what you say,’ stuff like that.”
But on the court, it was like stepping into a whole new world. The system at USC was completely different from the more rigid one she’d developed in at Stanford, where touches in the high post were regularly manufactured for her. Gottlieb’s offense, by comparison, ran fewer sets with far more freedom, more pick and rolls and an improvisational flow that felt, admittedly, a bit uncomfortable at first. More was asked of Iriafen on defense too. Until USC, she’d never really been asked to guard out to the perimeter.
Read more: Rayah Marshall sets the tone for No. 4 USC in win over No. 25 Illinois
All of the adjustments pushed Iriafen in ways that she’s grateful for now. But at the time, “there were definitely some growing pains.”
The early loss to Notre Dame stands out in her mind. Iriafen accounted for 15 points — nearly 25% of USC’s scoring — and pulled down nine rebounds. But she felt like she’d failed the team anyway. She came away questioning what role she was meant to play.
She didn’t find those answers right away. There were nights when Iriafen would put it all together, such as when she scored 30 in a win over Saint Louis. Or her stretch of four double-doubles in five games in December.
But well into the season, she still didn’t feel like herself. And now there were more eyes on her than ever before.
“There are so many things on social media, so many expectations you have for yourself,” Iriafen said. “And when things aren’t going the way you want them to, it’s about how do you keep showing up every single day? How do you keep pouring it in and keep believing in yourself?”
Those questions of fit have been an undercurrent through most of the season, for more than just Iriafen. Navigating that dynamic has required constant adjustments — and regular reassurances — from Gottlieb, who has talked at great length about managing the weight of expectations.
That weight seems to have lifted since the start of February. Since USC’s loss to Iowa, the Trojans have won six in a row, with a pair of top-10 wins and two more against teams in the top 25, while Iriafen has been on a tear, averaging 20 points in that stretch.
The one night she looked out of sorts was in USC’s win over UCLA, as Iriafen opened the game one for nine from the field. Watkins came alive in her absence, scoring 38, but it was Iriafen who helped finish off the top-ranked Bruins with nine points in the fourth quarter.
“I feel now like we’re in a much better place,” she said.
It also took time for Watkins to figure out how best to play off of Iriafen.
“I’ve never really played with a player like her before,” Watkins says. “She’s definitely raised my IQ.”
What happens next for USC, with the NCAA tournament fast approaching, will hinge in no small part on Iriafen, who has shown that she can step into the spotlight when the moment calls for it.
The video evidence played over the Galen Center jumbotron for all to see last week, as Iriafen’s Paris performance rang out over the loudspeaker during Senior Day speeches.
It was a perfect moment to encapsulate what she’d brought to USC.
“I think her WNBA career is not in jeopardy,” Gottlieb said of that performance. “But we loved it.”
Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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