The USC women’s basketball program carries huge expectations this season, as everyone knows. Managing those expectations is a real challenge. USC shouldn’t shy away from the expectations, just to be clear, but when one game doesn’t go perfectly, there’s no reason to panic and overreact. That’s really the key for the Trojans and coach Lindsay Gottlieb. There has to be an awareness of what the standard is, but also an awareness that the standard won’t be attained every night. Improvement is what matters.
Gottlieb said as much after USC’s 90-35 win over Cal Poly on Saturday, as reported by Luca Evans of the Orange County Register:
“Nobody’s winning a national championship on November – what is it, eighth? Whatever it is today,” Gottlieb said postgame. “Nobody’s getting — we can’t skip steps and fast-forward to another Elite Eight game … but what we can do is continue to push forward our identity.
Gottlieb is absolutely right to preach patience. Yet, she knows USC is not where it needs to be and is working hard to bring about needed improvements. USC has a growing concern behind the 3-point arc, going 7 of 39 from long range in two games so far this season. Talia von Oelhoffen failing to score and become the third main cog of the offense behind JuJu Watkins and Kiki Iriafen is also something USC needs to address. Gottlieb rightly notes that everything isn’t going to happen all at once, but the Trojans do need to make real and substantive advancements as they go along. Big games — Notre Dame on Nov. 23 and UConn one month later in December — are not that far away. USC has to be ready to meet the challenge.
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