Tag: USC women’s basketball

USC women’s basketball loses late lead to UCLA, as growing pains underscore difficulty of winning

It was a painful week for USC sports: Lose by 1 in the Cotton Bowl, lose by 2 to UCLA in men’s basketball, lose by 1 to UCLA in women’s hoops. #FightOn

The USC Trojans women’s basketball team is learning about the small margins between excellence and second-tier status. It’s true that no one expected USC to reach the top tier of the Pac-12 this season, and to be sure, USC’s program is definitely on the right track under head coach Lindsay Gottlieb. Yet, a positive long-term outlook doesn’t offer complete consolation for this season’s team and this season’s group of players. They really wanted to beat the UCLA Bruins, an established program under head coach Cori Close. They had a 12-point lead entering the fourth quarter.

They lost by one point. That stings, and it should. Optimism about the future shouldn’t erase the pain of this particular game. It was right there for the taking. The Women of Troy played so well for three quarters.

In their first game against UCLA this season, they held the Bruins to four points in the fourth quarter and lost by three, falling just short in a failed comeback attempt. This time, USC lost a lead and enabled UCLA to complete a comeback.

UCLA — having beaten USC 59-56 in the first meeting — rallied from a 52-40 deficit to claim a 61-60 win in the rematch on Sunday. The Bruins, who barely scored in the fourth quarter in the first meeting, posted 21 points in the fourth quarter of this game.

USC competed extremely well in two games against an NCAA Tournament-level team, but all the Trojans have to show for it is two losses by a combined four points.

When USC brings in top-tier recruits for next season and beyond, the contours of this rivalry — like USC’s overall standing within the Pac-12 — should change in ways which help the Trojans. In the present moment, however, all USC can point to is a moral victory. The Trojans are getting a first-class education in the difference between a moral victory and a scoreboard triumph. Becoming a winner means translating these almosts into actualized conquests. It will be fascinating to see how Gottlieb brings this team along in the coming weeks.

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USC women’s basketball loses to UCLA but shows that progress is real under Lindsay Gottlieb

#USC is 9-1 after losing a close one to UCLA, but in defeat, the Trojans might have made more progress than they did in their 9 early wins under Lindsay Gottlieb.

The USC Trojans entered Thursday night’s women’s basketball game against UCLA with an unbeaten record. However, that 9-0 mark came against a series of very manageable opponents. The Trojans did not play any of the elite teams in college basketball. They played a schedule which was conducive to piling up wins. They didn’t opt for a murderer’s row-type schedule which would severely test them.

This scheduling approach is good for a developing program. When USC gets better and becomes a top-flight program, the Trojans will obviously want to play the “take on all comers” schedule we see from Stanford, South Carolina, UConn, Texas, Tennessee, and the other big names in the sport. For now, though, building a winning identity — and scheduling a more manageable nonconference slate — makes sense.

The key point to emphasize is that after nine preliminary games, USC got its first really big test of the season on Thursday against UCLA. The Bruins, under veteran coach Cori Close, were ranked No. 10 and had a 9-1 record. How USC fared against UCLA would offer the first true and substantial measurement of where coach Lindsay Gottlieb’s program stood, both this season and in a larger evolutionary context.

This is only Year 2 of Gottlieb’s tenure at USC. A quick fix was not the job description. Getting the program back on track was seen as a project which would take at least three or four years.

After this game against UCLA, the Trojans have to be optimistic about where they are headed.

The Women of Troy didn’t beat the Bruins, but they came close. They held UCLA to only four points in the fourth quarter, but UCLA’s defense was strong enough to fend off USC in a 59-56 street fight.

USC belonged on the same court as the Bruins, who have been a Sweet 16-level program under Cori Close and have established themselves as a contender in the Pac-12 over several years. Being this competitive with UCLA shows that even in defeat, USC validated its solid start to the season. The Trojans have every reason to expect that they can finish in the upper half of the Pac-12 after finishing 10th last season.

Progress is real in Los Angeles. Lindsay Gottlieb has this program moving in the right direction.

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Social media reaction to USC women’s basketball landing Juju Watkins, USA’s No. 1 recruit

Shotgun Spratling, the excellent #USC reporter-analyst for @247Sports, notes that Watkins is @USCWBB’s highest-rated recruit since 2006.

USC women’s basketball under coach Lindsay Gottlieb was not a quick fix. Sure, there was an expectation that a coach with Gottlieb’s credentials and track record would eventually get this ship turned around. There’s no question that Gottlieb’s expertise and credibility would be attractive to recruits and would eventually build a much better, more robust product at USC.

However, with Stanford, Arizona, Oregon and UCLA all residing in a stacked Pac-12 Conference — where women’s basketball has been extremely good without USC in the mix — USC wasn’t instantly going to muscle its way to the top.

It was going to take time. The program did, however, need that big moment when the landscape changed and a transformative new player altered the equation.

Enter Juju Watkins, the nation’s top-ranked recruit, who committed to USC on Tuesday. We have reactions and notes: