McKenzie Forbes, Lindsay Gottlieb are aware how far USC women’s basketball has come

Forbes played for Gottlieb at Cal in 2019. She said maybe 50 people would attend USC home games. It’s different now.

The transformation of USC women’s basketball under head coach Lindsay Gottlieb is substantial and obvious. The obviousness can be found in how substantial the changes have been. The substantiality can be found in how obviousness the turnaround has been. Gottlieb and key player McKenzie Forbes both spoke about the new reality of USC women’s hoops in recent comments made after the win over UCLA.

Forbes spoke to NCAA women’s basketball commentator and analyst Autumn Johnson after the UCLA game. Gottlieb, before addressing the media, made on-court remarks to the Galen Center crowd. Both women noted how USC women’s basketball became a top drawing card on Sunday against UCLA, a far cry from the past.

Forbes told Autumn Johnson that when she was a freshman at Cal in 2019 — under Gottlieb, then the Golden Bears’ head coach — “maybe 50” people would be in the Galen Center for a USC women’s basketball game. A crowd of 10,657 packed Galen for the UCLA game, a night-and-day difference.

Forbes also noted the USC basketball doubleheader from Sunday, December 10, in which the men’s team played first — at 1 p.m. — and the women’s team played second. The men’s game was the USC debut of Bronny James, which brought an electric atmosphere to Galen. Forbes noted how a good portion of the crowd did not stay for that game (even though LeBron James himself did stay to watch the first half). The big crowd for this UCLA game showed that the women’s team is beginning to stand on its own two feet as a must-see college basketball product.

Gottlieb noted how opposing Pac-12 coaches would negatively recruit against USC, based on the belief (and evidence) that fans would not come out to watch them. Gottlieb pointed to the Galen Center crowd on Sunday and showed how that claim is no longer true.

The transformation of USC can be seen, and Gottlieb and Forbes are making sure everyone is aware of it.

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