Lindsay Gottlieb’s message to USC players insists on something better
USC women’s basketball head coach Lindsay Gottlieb has been a head coach for 14 total seasons and has a 297-159 overall record. With USC, Gottlieb has had a 62-31 record in three seasons for the Trojans.
A former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach, Gottlieb spent eight seasons at California, where she led the Golden Bear women to seven NCAA Tournament appearances with a trip to the Final Four in 2013.
We talked to her in part three of our interview about USC’s expectations, Juju Watkins, and more.
Trojans Wire: You return JuJu Watkins, who was second in the nation in scoring and have the No. 1 recruiting class in the country next season. What are your expectations for the Trojans this season?
Gottlieb: I’m excited! We set out to get USC WBB to the very top, and we haven’t done that yet, so there’s a lot of motivation. We never wanted to have one good year; we want to build something lasting and elite.
Having JuJu and our other veterans like Rayah Marshall back next year will be instrumental in making sure the rest of the team knows what to expect. They have a ton of experience and I know I can count on them to lead by example and set the tone for our team’s culture. And as everyone knows, we have a great recruiting and transfer portal class coming in.
One thing we’ve been telling our team is they set the bar and now we’re setting our sights beyond last year’s success. No team, no matter how successful they’ve been, is happy staying where they are and resting on their laurels. So we have to push and elevate ourselves because we have the potential to build on our success and do something special.
Trojans Wire: Your staff also had the best ranking in the transfer portal; how were you able to attract transfers with such a good returning team already in place?
Gottlieb: The transfer portal has allowed you to look at your timeframe, your windows for success, put the right pieces together, so I do think coming off of last season, the bar of expectation has been raised. I do think you know, going to the Elite Eight, the way that you improve is by going to a Final Four or winning a national championship. And so that’s what we want to do. Right away.
We recognize what we have with you (the new transfers). We recognize what we have with the other returning players, and we want to be able to compete at the highest level quickly.
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