Saniyah Hall, considered the No. 1 prospect in the women’s basketball Class of 2026, committed to Southern California on Friday.
“I would say it felt like home,” Hall said in her announcement on ESPN. “The girls there are so fun to be around. The coaches … have high support, but (head coach Lindsay Gottlieb) is definitely there to just support me and I’ve built a relationship with her — she’s a great coach.”
The commitment means the Trojans have signed three of the past four players ranked No. 1 in the country by ESPNW, following JuJu Watkins (2023) and Jasmine “Jazzy” Davidson (2025). Hall chose USC over rival UCLA and North Carolina.
Hall is listed at 6-foot-2 and can play guard or forward. A native of Lorain, Ohio, she transferred from Florida’s Montverde Academy to SPIRE Academy in Ohio for her senior year of high school.
She was named MVP at the FIBA U19 Women’s World Cup this summer, where she played alongside Davidson on Team USA as they won gold. Hall averaged 19.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.9 steals in the tournament.
Gottlieb has led USC to No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament in consecutive years. The Trojans fell in the Elite Eight both times.
–Field Level Media
