Tag: Lindsay Gottlieb

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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USC women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb is fired up after loss to Washington

Lindsay Gottlieb takes ownership of USC’s recent struggles with candor and honesty.

USC women’s basketball is playing quality competition in the Pac-12 Conference. We know the league is a cutthroat place and a real grind for nearly every team. Only Stanford, at 7-1 in the Pac-12, has truly avoided the meat grinder of the conference. Every other team has been beaten up to a certain extent through one month of competition. As February begins, USC — with four losses in the Pac-12 — knows it needs to be a lot better. Lindsay Gottlieb will make sure of that.

Gottlieb recently appeared on The Triple-Double podcast from Shotgun Spratling and Connor Morrissette of 247Sports. She took full responsibility for USC not being fully prepared or awake in a sluggish loss to the Washington Huskies. The defeat was USC’s first home-court loss this season. Gottlieb said on the show that it felt like the first time all season her team took the court with “USC” on its chest and felt that was going to be enough to win. Effort, performance, and precision did not rise to the standard Gottlieb expects from her team. She acknowledged the need to provide her players with a better plan and to create better shots at the offensive end of the floor.

It’s a great and very informative show. Give it a listen when you have time.

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McKenzie Forbes credits Lindsay Gottlieb with key adjustments for UCLA rematch

Forbes said the adjustments made from the UCLA loss on December 30 paid off in the rematch on January 14.

The relationship between USC basketball player McKenzie Forbes and head coach Lindsay Gottlieb goes back several years to when Gottlieb recruited Forbes to play in Berkeley. That’s right: Gottlieb coached at Cal in the 2018-2019 season, and Forbes was a freshman for the Golden Bears. Gottlieb then went to the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA. Forbes went to Harvard. The two reunited at USC this season, and their rapport shines through in how well they work together.

Forbes talked to NCAA women’s basketball commentator and analyst Autumn Johnson after USC’s huge win over UCLA. Forbes said Lindsay Gottlieb’s adjustments from the December 30 loss to UCLA helped USC in the January 14 rematch, chiefly by enabling USC players to get to their spots better in halfcourt offensive sets.

Forbes also discussed how smoothly this season has gone for her under Gottlieb:

“I really do feel comfortable out there,” Forbes told Johnson. “It’s just a testament to Coach G (Gottlieb) and the trust she has in me.”

Putting players in position to thrive is the mark of a quality head coach. USC could not ask for a better leader as it makes its climb up the ladder in the women’s basketball world.

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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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Record crowd of over 10,600 packs Galen Center for USC win over UCLA, sending a message to Jen Cohen

The message: Build an elite program and fans will come. USC’s AD needs to hire a new men’s basketball coach.

The vision came to fruition on Sunday for USC women’s basketball. This is what head coach Lindsay Gottlieb and star player JuJu Watkins dreamed of when they both came to USC, Gottlieb a few years ago and Watkins last year. This is what any coach, and any star player, want to see when they go to a school in search of a spark.

USC women’s basketball created the first dynasty of the Women’s NCAA Tournament era, which began in 1982. USC was the first school to win multiple NCAA Tournament national championships in the 1980s thanks to Cheryl Miller and Cynthia Cooper. The program remained strong into the mid-1990s thanks to Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson. Then, for roughly 25 years, the music and the magic stopped. The program slid into irrelevance and obscurity.

Gottlieb was sold on the idea that USC women’s basketball could rise again and become what it once was. In order for Gottlieb’s vision to emerge, she needed a transformative player. JuJu Watkins, a Los Angeles native, was right there as the top recruit in the country. Gottlieb kept her home in Southern California. One elite coach plus one elite player — and all the other decisions and roster additions flowing from them — brought USC women’s hoops to Sunday afternoon in the Galen Center. The Trojans clearly outplayed No. 2 UCLA and dealt the Bruins, a likely No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, their first loss of the season. Watkins played great. Gottlieb coached a brilliant game. The role players were terrific. The defense was lights-out. Everything came together.

USC couldn’t have — and wouldn’t have — played as well as it did without an electric, vibrant, full-house crowd at the Galen Center. USC set an attendance record for women’s basketball in its on-campus arena, which is not quite 20 years old. Over 10,600 fans packed into Galen. Everyone wanted to get in. This is what it looks like when a basketball program hits its stride and reaches its potential.

USC Athletic Director Jennifer Cohen noticed this:

Some industry insiders think that after making several NCAA Tournaments in a row, Andy Enfield should be safe as the men’s basketball coach. However, when you look at how greatly Gottlieb has transformed the women’s program, it shows what happens when a truly elite coach takes hold of a program.

Jen Cohen needs to ask herself if USC can do better than Enfield. Cohen knows Enfield is a good coach. He has done a good job at USC. However, this season’s team was supposed to be doing the same kinds of things the women have done and are doing right now. The success of one basketball program is magnifying the failure of the other at USC. Enfield has improved USC basketball over his 11 years with the school, but he has never done what Gottlieb has managed to do in less than three full seasons.

Notably, Enfield and Gottlieb both had No. 1-ranked recruits. Gottlieb has enabled JuJu Watkins to play and perform like a superstar, maximizing both her own talents and the abilities of her teammates. No. 1 men’s basketball recruit Isaiah Collier — now injured — did nothing of the sort due to Enfield’s inability to unlock the full measure of his talents.

Jen Cohen sees the hype USC women’s basketball has created. She can see the packed houses and the identity JuJu Watkins is creating under Lindsay Gottlieb. There’s no reason USC men’s basketball can’t go out and get a great coach — an upgrade from Enfield — and reach the same heights.

The message — like the visuals from Sunday’s stirring win over UCLA — could not be any clearer.

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Lindsay Gottlieb hypes up the Galen Center crowd after USC defeats UCLA

Lindsay Gottlieb is making USC fans aware of how much is changing in Los Angeles.

The USC Trojans women’s basketball team has been the opposite of the disappointing men’s basketball program. On Sunday, the Galen Center was full of fans who were on hand to watch UCLA and USC play each other.

This time, the packed house wasn’t because of the men’s team. The women’s programs took center stage, facing off in a top-10 showdown.

By the end of it, the Trojans got the victory and gave UCLA its first loss of the year. 

After the game ended, USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb grabbed the mic and delivered a powerful message to the fans in attendance. What was an irrelevant, obscure, and unsuccessful program a few short years ago is now on the national radar screen. The Trojans are the talk of Los Angeles after their 73-65 win over UCLA on Sunday.

There was an attendance record set for the game, and fans were lining up outside of the Galen Center hours prior to this massive showdown.

Gottlieb and USC have done it: They defeated UCLA and are one loss behind Colorado in the Pac-12 Conference.

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USC’s journey to the top tier of women’s basketball has been easy to see the past 12 months

January 15, 2023: USC beats No. 2 Stanford. January 14, 2024: USC beats No. 2 UCLA. The rise of the Trojans is real.

The USC Trojans might have already arrived in a certain sense. One could reasonably say they arrived as a better team and a bigger force in women’s college basketball when they throttled No. 7 Ohio State on the first day of this season, November 6, 2023.

However, USC arrived in a fuller and more substantial sense on Sunday in the Galen Center. The Trojans beat No. 2 UCLA. They dealt a very powerful and balanced team its first loss of the season. They are 13-1. They solidified their position as a top-10 team. They will very likely be a top-three or four seed at the 2024 NCAA Tournament. In women’s college basketball, that means USC would get to host a first-round game with a chance to play a second-round game in the Galen Cener as well.

USC is playing in the big leagues now, in terms of playing for high stakes and high seeds and being a Sweet 16-level program with a chance to do more.

The program was good a year ago. It is very, very good right now. It is reaching for greatness.

How easy is it to measure the growth of this program over the past 12 months? Let’s talk about this progression for the Women of Troy:

USC coaching staff is trying to give JuJu Watkins a comfort zone in freshman season

Lindsay Gottlieb is learning about JuJu Watkins all the time, trying to give her superstar freedom but also protection.

Great coaches allow great players to be who and what they are, but they still need to create an environment in which those players aren’t smothered by outside pressure and don’t get overwhelmed by the demands of the public. This is the balancing act for Lindsay Gottlieb at USC, as the Trojans’ head coach tries to put superstar player JuJu Watkins in the best possible position to thrive.

Beth Harris of the Associated Press reported on the story and gained insights from Gottlieb and Watkins.

“I think we’re headed for some unprecedented things,” Gottlieb said. “She (JuJu) handles all of this with such grace. We try to do a good job of allowing her to be her, which is different and special, but also shielding her from some extra stuff. We’re constantly kind of updating that plan as we go.”

“She understands her importance in the community,” Gottlieb added. “As good of a player as she is, she’s really even a better human. I know it sounds cliché but it’s the truth. Her village and her circle is really adept at putting her in the best possible situation to be happy and to succeed.”

Watkins remarked that “It’s very heartwarming just to feel the energy here (in Los Angeles), feel all the love. It’s amazing, especially that it’s in my hometown. I’m able to see people that I don’t really get to see as often, see family and little kids, it’s really cool.”

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