Tag: Lindsay Gottlieb

Lindsay Gottlieb describes the new world of women’s college basketball

Lindsay Gottlieb went on Richard Deitsch’s sports media podcast to explain how a coach handles different media pressures in modern women’s basketball.

USC women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb was a guest on Richard Deitsch’s newest sports media podcast. For a USC program which has attained national relevance, and is now a bigger point of focus for Trojan fans who are suffering through a brutal football season, Gottlieb’s media-specific insights are fascinating to contemplate.

This podcast deals a little with the current USC team, but as a media-oriented show, it focuses mostly on how Gottlieb and USC are handling the media spotlight and its mixture of challenges and opportunities.

Lindsay Gottlieb discusses her interaction with player agents, the role of a general manager within the USC women’s hoops program, the overall program infrastructure, helping players build their brand and maximize both exposure and revenue, and the larger attempt to put basketball first and maintain a team-centered culture amid the commercial pressures of the sport.

Gottlieb also went into detail in explaining the challenge and complexity of scheduling national television games such as the USC-UConn game on Dec. 21 on Fox. That game will have an NFL lead-in, offering considerable visibility to USC women’s basketball.

Gottlieb also talked about the need to balance local and national media obligations, being available for Los Angeles outlets but also being willing to set aside time in a busy day for national media organizations interested in the program due to its prominence and the brilliance of superstar JuJu Watkins.

There’s so much to consider in this discussion. It’s a peek behind the curtain and a look inside the juggling act Gottlieb and other high-profile coaches have to pull off in modern women’s basketball.

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USC women’s basketball officially signs five-star guard

USC is jazzed up about Jazzy Davidson. The Trojans have now signed the No. 2 overall player in the Class of 2025. This is a home run.

On Wednesday, USC women’s basketball officially announced the signing of five-star guard Jazzy Davidson.

Hailing from Clackamas, Oregon, Davidson is the No. 2 overall player and the No. 1 guard in the class of 2025, per On3’s rankings. She committed to USC in September.

As a junior at Clackamas High School last year, Davidson was a semifinalist for the 2023-24 Naismith Trophy High School Girls Basketball Player of the Year award.

“Jazzy, in my opinion, is the jewel of this class,” USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said in a statement. “She is an elite level player in every aspect. She can score, create, defend—a true modern, pro-style player. She has a work ethic and competitiveness that will impact our program immediately. But from that first conversation I also knew that Jazzy the person was someone I wanted in our program. She is truly as humble and likeable as she is talented. We got a special one, and I couldn’t be more excited.”

Gottlieb’s 2024-2025 Trojans currently sit at 3-0 and are ranked No. 3 in the country.

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It’s still very early, but USC women’s basketball looks like a force to be reckoned with

If you were worried about USC women’s basketball after the Ole Miss game, these last two games at home have shown how potent the Trojans can become.

In case you didn’t hear, USC women’s basketball won Tuesday night.

Actually, won is a a massive understatement. USC women’s basketball completely and utterly dominated the lifeless corpse of Cal State Northridge, which had the misfortune of being the Women of Troy’s opponent.

USC led 30-6 after one quarter. At halftime, it was 60-13. Through three quarters, it was 97-20. When the final buzzer sounded, the Trojans had a historic 124-39 victory, and the visitors from Northridge could mercifully go home.

USC’s 124 points scored were a new program record. It was also the Trojans’ second consecutive victory by a margin of 55+ points.

Sure, those games came against Cal Poly and Cal State Northridge, but any time a team wins by 55 and then 85 points, it raises eyebrows.

It is still only three games into the season. The No. 3 Trojans still have nonconference showdowns with No. 6 Notre Dame and No. 2 UConn, plus a gauntlet of a Big Ten schedule, which features seven games against top-25 opponents.

But if early results are any indication, the Women of Troy are going to be a force to be reckoned with this season.

The ugly opener against Ole Miss was the floor for this team. It will play good defense even when it plays bad offense and can stay in games in which it commits turnovers and endures a rough slog at the offensive end. USC will be competitive even when it plays poorly. These last two games against Cal Poly and especially Northridge offer a glimpse of where this team’s ceiling can be. The defense is the constant, but we have seen the offense improve. Notably, Talia von Oelhoffen was finally able to score in double figures. Getting her going really raises this team’s ceiling and raises the bar for what this team can become.

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USC women’s basketball makes history in blowout win

The USC Trojans trouncing Cal State Northridge on Tuesday was expected, but the way they did it was far from ordinary. This performance stood out.

The USC Trojans women’s basketball team is good. Really good. It picked up its third win in as many games this season in super fashion with a 124-39 romp over Cal State Northridge. JuJu Watkins and the rest of the Trojans thrived. The 124-point total broke the school’s single-game scoring record. The 85-point win set the largest margin of victory — men’s or women’s — for Trojans basketball.

The Trojans were led by standout sophomore guard JuJu Watkins, who led all scorers with 21 points and 9 assists. All 13 Trojans who played scored. Six players, including forward Kiki Iriafen (15), scored in double digits.

It was an all-around win for the Trojans. Offensively, they shot 60.8% from the floor and 47.2% beyond the arc while grabbing 15 offensive rebounds. Defensively, the team forced 43 turnovers, four more turnovers than Cal State Northridge had points.

As part of the historic night, USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb picked up her 300th career win, which the team celebrated after the blowout.

The Trojans are a team to keep an eye on this season. Even against weak opponents, with the result known before the tip, this team can create a spectacle night in and night out.

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USC fans can pull a doubleheader in LA on November 23

It’s a blockbuster USC sports doubleheader on November 23. You can go to Galen Center for women’s hoops and then to Pasadena for football versus UCLA.

On Monday, the kickoff time was announced for the annual Crosstown Showdown rivalry game between USC and UCLA. On Saturday, November 23, the Trojans and Bruins will battle under the lights at the Rose Bowl. Kickoff of the Battle of Los Angeles is set for 7:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. The game will be televised on NBC. Earlier that afternoon, the USC women’s basketball team will play a marquee early season game when the Women of Troy host Notre Dame at the Galen Center. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. Pacific, also on NBC.

For USC football and basketball fans in Los Angeles, this sets up a dream doubleheader scenario. Fans will be able to catch the basketball game in its entirety, then head over to the Rose Bowl for the football game. Even with LA traffic, there should still be plenty of time for tailgating prior to kickoff.

Even for those who will not be able to attend, it will still be incredibly convenient: NBC will televise both matchups nationally, so fans will not even need to change the channel.

For good measure, the peacock network will also televise Notre Dame football’s showdown with undefeated Army in between these two USC games. Hence, NBC’s schedule for Saturday, November 23 is (Pacific time):

1 p.m.: USC-Notre Dame women’s basketball

4 p.m.: Notre Dame football

7:30 p.m.: USC football versus UCLA

It sets up an exciting day in the spotlight for the Trojans and the Fighting Irish, leading up to their showdown on the football field the following week on Nov. 30.

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Lindsay Gottlieb offers realism about USC, even as Trojans try to address flaws

Lindsay Gottlieb wants to be patient while still setting the bar very high for her team. She has to fix problems but not panic when they emerge. It’s a balance.

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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Lindsay Gottlieb on the mental adjustment for USC women’s basketball

Lindsay Gottlieb knows this coming season will be very different from 2023-2024.

USC women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb is creating the Trojans’ nonconference schedule for the coming season.

Two games have been added to the slate this week. USC will play Seton Hall on Wednesday, Nov. 27, and then Saint Louis on Friday, Nov. 29 in Palm Desert, California. At a media availability session attached to the announcement of these two games, Lindsay Gottlieb discussed the mental adjustment this season’s USC women’s basketball team will need to make:

“Last year our mantra was like ‘don’t pick us now, you didn’t pick us before’ and it was a year that no one expected much from us and we had something to prove,” Gottlieb said. “So a lot of my time this offseason has been studying the nuances of the right buttons to push for a group that is new and is going to have a lot of expectations placed on us. How do we embrace that and raise the bar and perform to that standard without losing our joy? We’ll dive into that mental side of things just as much as the physical.”

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Lindsay Gottlieb is eagerly following USC Trojans in women’s pro basketball

Lindsay Gottlieb notes that USC’s Kaitlyn Davis is playing pro ball in Mexico.

Next year, USC women’s basketball head coach Lindsay Gottlieb and the Trojans will move to the Big Ten Conference and will have six new players joining from high school, all ranked within the top 100 in the country by ESPN.

The team Lindsay Gottlieb has established is one everyone wants to play for. She is considered by some a top-five head coach in the sport. With Tara VanDerveer and Lisa Bluder both retiring, it is certainly more reasonable to view Gottlieb as a top-five coach in women’s college basketball entering the 2024-2025 season. We conclude our interview series with Gottlieb below:

Trojans Wire: How often have you gotten to catch up with your former players that are now in the WNBA such as McKenzie Forbes, Kadi Sissoko, etc.?

Gottlieb: I’m fortunate to have several former players who are still hooping, whether it’s in the WNBA or overseas. I try to keep up with everyone, those still playing pro ball or my players that are all “grown” doing all kinds of other things.

Phones make it pretty easy to shoot a text or facetime so it’s fun to keep up that way. Certainly, those that are playing, I’m always tuned to it no matter where or when the games are. Kaitlyn Davis is playing in Mexico as I speak, so we are locked into that!

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Lindsay Gottlieb offers a word of wisdom on USC women’s basketball

Lindsay Gottlieb has a complete understanding of what it takes to create better basketball players.

Great coaches, great teachers, and great practitioners of any craft have a unique way of understanding success and how to attain it. What they communicate manages to convey not just the right lesson, but an element of motivation and challenge. Great coaches aren’t just people who give instructions. They make players want to improve. They make athletes want to push themselves. In our latest segment of our interview series with Lindsay Gottlieb of USC women’s basketball, the coach offers a simple but profound difference between potential and reality. You’ll see it when you read this Q-and-A segment below:

Trojans Wire: What things do the Ladies of Troy need to improve on this offseason as a team?

Gottlieb: Well first of all, there will be a target on our back, we aren’t sneaking up on anyone anymore. We have to embrace the expectations, but make sure that our daily work ethic matches our goals. We have a lot of talent, but we have to mesh together and become a winning team, not just a collection of talent. There’s so much to get better at: we want to play faster, score more, score more efficiently, defend better. We can’t wait to get to work.

Trojans Wire: What will be the major key in transition to the Big Ten Conference?

Gottlieb: We have so much respect for the teams in the Big Ten, it’s a really, really good conference. We also are excited to be showcased on the biggest stages, both on national TV platforms and games across the country. One big key is to show up as the best version of USC, not trying to mimic anyone else’s style.

We will study the teams this offseason, as there are a lot of teams we need to familiarize ourselves with; so the coaches will have a lot of prep work to do. For our players, we want to make the travel as seamless as possible, get them prepared, so they just need to own our goals and our style of play and bring that each and every night to this new conference. If we do that, I think it will be a really challenging but fun transition.

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Lindsay Gottlieb sees USC-UConn as a boost for women’s basketball

Lindsay Gottlieb wants her team to grow, but she also wants a showcase event which helps women’s basketball thrive.

Our conversation with USC women’s basketball head coach Lindsay Gottlieb, facilitated by the Box Out Colon Cancer campaign, continues. USC and UConn will enter the season as the top two women’s basketball teams in the nation. The game, which will be played on Saturday, Dec. 21, will feature the college game’s two biggest stars in USC’s JuJu Watkins and UConn’s Paige Bueckers. We asked coach Gottlieb about the hyped matchup.

Trojans Wire: How excited are you to play UConn on the national stage Dec. 21 in an Elite Eight rematch?

Gottlieb: We want to be able to play in big, exciting games that are good both for our players and for women’s basketball as a whole. What an opportunity to begin a home-home series with such a terrific program! That said, I don’t necessarily buy in as much to the rematch narrative. Both teams will look very different, so instead of a rematch, I’m excited for this early test.

Trojans Wire: What are your thoughts on being preseason favorites coming into the 2024-25 season?

Gottlieb: Going into next season, the bar has definitely been raised. We’re coming off an Elite Eight appearance and the way that you improve is by going to the Final Four or winning a national championship. So that’s what we want to do. However, to attack elite level goals, you need to do the small things in an elite way each and every day.

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