Lindsay Gottlieb knows USC women’s basketball will soon encounter a bumpy ride

Lindsay Gottlieb is doing the deep work with her team which will hopefully pay off down the road.

While Andy Enfield is plainly struggling to get the USC men’s basketball team to play well together, there are no such worries with the women’s team. USC women’s basketball has roared out of the gate, winning each of its first eight games and putting itself in a position to go unbeaten in nonconference play. The Trojans are playing home buy games right now, so they’re not facing the most formidable opponents on their schedule. Yet, it’s clear that coach Lindsay Gottlieb is thinking about the long run, not just the next game on the slate.

Gottlieb is making it clear to her players that a rough ride is just around the corner. The Pac-12 gauntlet is coming, and the Women of Troy need to be tough enough to handle what is about to come their way.

Gottlieb explained her thought process to Shotgun Spratling and Connor Morrissette of the Triple Double USC Podcast at 247Sports:

“I want to be sure this team is equipped to handle things that are hard, because we know it’s not going to be a breeze by any means,” Gottlieb said, a reference to the start of Pac-12 Conference play. USC knows that four other teams in the Pac-12 have been consistently ranked in the top 10 this season, and that the lower half of the conference is strong, with teams capable of knocking off the heavyweights on any given night.

“We’ve talked about championship habits and championship standards,” Gottlieb continued. “We have really tried to use this practice time to get better and make sure that we have our players’ attention on the things which are most important, which can sometimes be hard to do when you’re winning, but I think this group has really bought into the big picture.”

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