Tag: Lindsay Gottlieb

Lindsay Gottlieb offers a candid assessment of USC women’s basketball

Lindsay Gottlieb is regularly and refreshingly honest in describing the state of her program.

Lindsay Gottlieb has carried USC women’s basketball a long way, but that long journey still has many miles to go. Gottlieb, in an interview with Ahmad Akkaoui of 247Sports, said that while USC has made tremendous progress and is heading in the right direction, the Women of Troy are not yet where they want to be.

“We still feel incredibly hungry. We didn’t do everything we want to do. We were chasing what South Carolina has right now, which is a national championship. We’re chasing what UConn, Iowa and NC State did, which was go to a Final Four,” Gottlieb said. “We’re on the cusp of greatness, but also being motivated to work to get there. I think success in college athletics – improvement comes from three areas. It comes with improving the players currently in your program, comes from bringing in talented freshmen, and it comes from the transfer portal.”

Gottlieb is clear about the forward steps USC has taken, but she rightly doesn’t want anyone to assume that the Final Four and national championship contention will naturally happen just because JuJu Watkins will have another year of experience. No. Other players will need to make significant contributions. Gottlieb will have to coach better after getting outflanked by Geno Auriemma of UConn in the Elite Eight.

USC is in a very good place, but that’s not quite the best possible place. Taking those final steps will be the program’s goal in the next 12 months.

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Lindsay Gottlieb retraces the larger journey USC women’s basketball has made

Lindsay Gottlieb’s words from the 2023 NCAA Tournament echo powerfully in 2024.

USC is in the Elite Eight. The Trojans face UConn Monday night for a spot in the Final Four. This women’s basketball program has come a long way. One year ago, when USC was returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014, coach Lindsay Gottlieb reflected on the 2023 team and its significant journey to bring USC women’s hoops back to relevance. One can hear echoes of the sacrifice and team-first attitude which have carried the 2024 team even deeper in March Madness.

Gottlieb spoke to the press in Blacksburg, Virginia, after USC’s 2023 NCAA Tournament game versus South Dakota State:

“In the spring of last year when I figured out where we needed to go, what the direction needed to be, and how we were going to get there, I was very transparent with this is where we’re going, this is how we’re going to shape the culture,” Gottlieb said. “I had to go out and get a bunch of transfers who believed in that vision, a mix of people from a lot of different places. Our north star and our driving force has always been that we wanted to be in the postseason. We wanted to win. What does winning look like? It’s a bunch of people who really bought into that all year, and then we coached them up in terms of how it has to look in terms of the effort and the intensity. I credit our players. I told them I think there’s a lot of great things in store for this program.

“I’ll never forget this group,” Gottlieb continued about her 2023 squad. “They changed the perceptions of what people think of us. A couple of them were super seniors in their last year of eligibility, and even though they might not be here when we do some other big things in this tournament, in my mind they’ll be part of it, they’ll be part of the Trojan legacy in a way that’s really important to me. I’m proud of that, and it’s something that’s been part of our identity all year long.”

Gottlieb also commented specifically on Rayah Marshall, and how her first phone call at USC was to keep her from leaving through the transfer portal.

“She’s been coachable, she wants to be great, she allows us to push her. She got a taste of it tonight. That can be a scary thing in a good way. She’s not happy with the feeling and that’s going to drive her,” Gottlieb said. “Her talent is limitless. We’re going to help make her into one of the best players she can be, one of the best players in the country.”

Marshall and the Trojans play for the Final Four on Monday night in Portland against UConn.

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Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo named AP First Team All-American

What a season she’s had.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] has had a special freshman season at Notre Dame, and now, we know exactly how special. She has joined USC’s JuJu Watkins as the fourth and fifth freshmen to be named to the AP All-American First Team since it began during the 1994-95 season. They join Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, South Carolina’s MiLaysia Fulwiley and Texas’ Madison Booker.

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Trojans coach Lindsay Gottlieb obviously has seen Watkins up close and personal throughout this season, but she reserved praise for Hidalgo, too:

“We’ve had a front row seat to JuJu, but what Hannah’s done is unbelievable Coach Niele (Ivey) has done an incredible job.”

Ivey also was quoted in the AP story and said this about Hidalgo, the nation’s steals leader at 4.6 a game and its third-leading scorer at 23.3 points a game:

“She deserves to be listed amongst the best in women’s basketball. Hannah is a fierce competitor and an elite performer who rises to the occasion and has been extremely consistent and dominant this season.”

What has to be scary to opponents is that Hidalgo only is getting started. She likely will hold many Irish records by the time she’s done with the program. Irish fans will be anxious to find out how many of those records she holds in the end.

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USC’s Lindsay Gottlieb named Naismith Coach of the Year semifinalist

Lindsay Gottlieb is undeniably one of the very best coaches in women’s college basketball, this year and in general.

Lindsay Gottlieb is listed among 10 other semifinalists for the Werner Ladder Naismith Coach of the Year Award. She has the USC women’s basketball team ranked No. 3 in the nation.

In her third season at USC, Gottlieb has guided her Women of Troy to their highest national ranking since 1986, coming off USC’s run to the Pac-12 Tournament championship, won over Stanford a week ago.

Gottlieb, who is no stranger to being a top coach in the Pac-12 Conference, previously coached the Cal Bears women’s team to seven NCAA tournaments, including a Final Four appearance in 2013. She has established a track record of consistent success in one of college basketball’s toughest and deepest conferences. She led USC to the Women’s NCAA Tournament last season in just her second year with the Women of Troy. She now has the program poised to make a deep run in this year’s edition of March Madness.

Gottlieb is 59-31 overall with a 29-24 conference record overall at USC in her third year at the school.

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Photos from USC women’s basketball’s historic Pac-12 Tournament championship

USC won its first Pac-12 Tournament since 2014. McKenzie Forbes was the Most Outstanding Player. What a weekend in Vegas!

Many weekends in Las Vegas are lost and wasteful. A roll of the dice, the wrong cards at the table, or a bad spin of the roulette wheel create that losing feeling and a pit of misery. It was exactly the opposite for the USC women’s basketball team, which had one of the most successful and productive weekends anyone could possibly have in Vegas. What happened in Vegas did not stay in Vegas — it reverberated through the USC community and through the national college basketball landscape. USC’s capture of the Pac-12 Tournament championship — the school’s second all-time and its first since 2014 — has very likely lifted the Trojans to a No. 1 seed in the upcoming Women’s NCAA Tournament.

This was an electric occasion and a very special moment for the team, particularly Pac-12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player McKenzie Forbes, who was overcome with emotion after this historic victory and her majestic 26-point performance. Here are photos of a great moment in USC sports history, with Forbes and USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb taking center stage as the Trojans enter March Madness with full momentum and belief:

Lindsay Gottlieb promotes USC women’s basketball as Trojans chase Pac-12 Tournament title, No. 1 seed

Lindsay Gottlieb has shown USC fans what elite basketball coaching looks like. She’s talking about USC on podcasts and everywhere else.

Right now is a great time to be Lindsay Gottlieb, the head coach of the USC women’s basketball program. The Women of Troy are in the Pac-12 Tournament championship game, facing Stanford on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas. USC is firmly in the discussion for a No. 1 seed in the 2024 Women’s NCAA Tournament. The Trojans beat crosstown Los Angeles rival UCLA for a second time this season. They have lost only five games all season long. They will host Women’s NCAA Tournament games at the Galen Center in two weeks, marking the first time in school history that has happened (hosting at the Galen Center, to be specific). Gottlieb has USC in a great place, to be sure.

Then again, is there ever a bad time to be Lindsay Gottlieb? She won at Santa Barbara. She won at Cal. She did well as a Cleveland Cavalier assistant in the NBA. She’s a winner and an elite coach. USC fans have her in their corner. They’re lucky to have Gottlieb coaching their team. We can all see the difference Gottlieb makes.

With USC now front and center in the national women’s basketball conversation, take a look at some quotes and pull up some podcasts Gottlieb has recently appeared on, spreading the gospel of USC women’s basketball, including but not limited to JuJu Watkins:

JuJu Watkins, Lindsay Gottlieb react to huge USC women’s basketball win over Colorado

JuJu Watkins is enjoying the journey and knows there is more room to grow for herself and this team.

USC women’s basketball continues to rise and improve. The Trojans beat Colorado, 87-81, on Friday night in the Galen Center. They are now 21-4 on the season and just one game out of the lead in the Pac-12 after Stanford got upset by Arizona. USC is in the hunt for a No. 1 seed in the 2024 Women’s NCAA Tournament. It has been a really good season for this group, led by superstar JuJu Watkins under the direction of head coach Lindsay Gottlieb.

JuJu and Gottlieb reacted to this important win along with other USC players and the beat writers who cover this team, which will host NCAA Tournament games one month from now:

JuJu Watkins and Lindsay Gottlieb trust each other, the key to USC’s success

The superstar player trusts her coach. The coach trusts her best player to do the right thing. It’s working for USC WBB.

USC women’s basketball head coach Lindsay Gottlieb has gushed about JuJu Watkins from the beginning. Now other people are noticing. Everyone in the basketball world — not just the women’s basketball community — is still buzzing about Watkins’ 51-point masterpiece for USC against Tara VanDerveer’s Stanford Cardinal on Friday.

The 51 points are impressive without any context, but they become even more impressive with layers of context added: on the road. At Stanford. The No. 4 team in the country. The first-place team in the Pac-12. Coached by VanDerveer, a legend of the game.

The 51 points for Watkins came after her worst game of the season against Washington several days earlier. The 51 points came when USC had lost three of four and needed to turn its season around. The 51 points might have saved USC’s season, relative to the central goal of hosting NCAA Tournament opening-round games (by getting a top-four seed in March Madness).

Luca Evans of The Orange County Register noted that the trust and mutual respect between Watkins and head coach Lindsay Gottlieb are powerful and strong.

“It’s the mentality that’s underwritten every facet of this scintillating USC season. When top recruit Watkins unveiled her commitment live on ESPN on Nov. 15, 2022, in front of a packed crowd of family sporting Watkins-themed T-shirts, she could’ve easily announced she was headed to Stanford – a more established program in Watkins’ final three choices. Instead, she chose USC, a school that hadn’t advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament since 2006. She chose home. And she chose Gottlieb.

“’It is never lost on me,’ Gottlieb said Saturday. ‘Like, it is never not something that I think about, because I do think she’s different. She had a courage that I don’t think many people would have had. She had a belief in herself, and us, and in L.A. and USC.’”

“So Gottlieb has trusted in her, the same as Watkins has trusted in Gottlieb. And that’s meant – as Gottlieb has repeated multiple times – giving her freedom. Not stifling JuJu being JuJu. It was written in every shot Watkins dropped Saturday, scoring a near-unfathomable 51 of USC’s 67.”

Some coaches try to micromanage star players and damage the relationship between two of the most important people on a team. Gottlieb clearly has maintained Watkins’ trust, and it shows in how well — and how hard — Watkins is playing. This central relationship lies at the center of sustaining and improving USC women’s basketball. If this coach-player bond remains unbreakable, the Trojans are destined to be great.

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USC’s Lindsay Gottlieb and Beth Burns have figured out how to stop Stanford’s offense

In 2023 and now in 2024, Stanford’s offense has not been able to solve USC’s defense. It’s a trend.

Fans of the Stanford Cardinal are looking at USC women’s basketball with respect, but also annoyance, after the Trojans knocked off the Trees on Friday night in Palo Alto. USC is a legitimately good team, but the Trojans seem to save their best defensive performances for Stanford and Tara VanDerveer. Lindsay Gottlieb coached against Tara for years at Cal. Beth Burns, a veteran coach, owns considerable expertise in her own right as Gottlieb’s defensive coordinator and as a top-rate basketball mind. Gottlieb and Burns always seem to get the scouting report right when attacking Stanford’s offense. If one’s an accident and two is a trend, USC has one and a half trends going right now.

USC’s return to prominence in women’s college basketball began on January 15, 2023, with a 55-46 win over Stanford. USC bothered Stanford stars Cameron Brink and Haley Jones. Just for good measure, USC held Stanford to 50 points a few weeks later in the 2023 season. The Cardinal won, but only because they held USC to 47 points. The Trees never did solve the Gottlieb-Burns defense.

Now, here we are a year later. USC again went into Maples Pavilion and held Stanford under 60 points for a third straight time overall, a second straight time in Stanford’s gym. Cameron Brink was once again contained by the Trojans. She hit just 4 of 14 field goal attempts. She scored 11 of her 19 points at the foul line. USC’s three main frontcourt players — Rayah Marshall, Clarice Akunwafo, and Kaitlyn Davis — used all 15 fouls. The Trojans were then able to withstand Brink even after their frontcourt fouled out.

The rising star for Stanford this season is forward Kiki Iriafen. Brink got injured a few weeks ago (before coming back to the lineup). Iriafen scored 36 points with Brink out against Oregon State, in the win which gave Tara VanDerveer her record-breaking 1,203rd win, passing Mike Krzyzewski as the all-time winningest Division I college basketball coach. Iriafen averaged over 26 points in her previous four games.

Against USC, she managed only 16 points on 6-of-18 shooting. Iriafen and Brink combined to make just 10 of 32 field goal attempts. USC could not have defended the two players any better.

JuJu Watkins scoring 51 was the main highlight of Friday night. USC holding Stanford under 60 for a third straight time is the other central reason the Trojans won. The staff had the right defensive plan, and the players executed it brilliantly … again.

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Lindsay Gottlieb and JuJu Watkins meet a new set of challenges head-on

Lindsay Gottlieb has a chance to break through with JuJu Watkins as USC’s season evolves.

The USC women’s basketball team is going through a tough time, having lost three out of four games and falling into the middle of the pack in the Pac-12. Lindsay Gottlieb didn’t want this, but she also isn’t surprised the Pac-12 Conference is extremely tough. She knows the drill, having gone through the rigors of the league when she previously coached at Cal. Gottlieb knows she needs to give superstar player JuJu Watkins all the tools she needs to succeed. She gained a lot of new information in Sunday’s loss to the Washington Huskies.

There is a balance Gottlieb and Watkins have to arrive at for USC this season. Watkins deserves a certain amount of freedom as the team’s best and most gifted scorer, but that freedom shouldn’t exist at the expense of failing to give good shooters such as Kayla Padilla (6 of 9 on 3-pointers against Washington) more opportunities to score. Studying Washington game film might show JuJu what she needs to do better in terms of distributing the ball and creating shots for others as opposed to shooting herself. Gottlieb and Watkins have to find ways to unlock the potential of an offense which has struggled to produce efficient shooting percentages in recent weeks. If USC can fix the offensive end of the floor, the Trojans’ ceiling will rise considerably heading into March Madness.

We discussed these and other related points on our most recent Trojans Wired podcast:

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