May 14, 2024
Locked On Women’s Basketball: Lindsay Gottlieb and USC’s ascent
By The Next
Gottlieb joins host Howard Megdal to discuss the trajectory of the program
Lindsay Gottlieb knows her USC Trojans can’t repeat as Pac-12 champions, but that’s only because USC is joining the Big Ten in what will be guard JuJu Watkins‘ sophomore year. Gottlieb joins host Howard Megdal to discuss the trajectory of the program, from her huge wins in the transfer portal — hello, Kiki Iriafen and Talia von Oelhoffen — to a bumper crop of incoming freshmen, along with a larger discussion about what all the changes in college basketball mean and how to navigate this new world.
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To start the show, Gottlieb discusses the faster-than-expected ascent of the USC program, spearheaded in part by the notoriety of JuJu Watkins.
“I didn’t really write a schedule. I think what we did this year, probably in terms of shattering some records and doing things that haven’t been done in 40 years, maybe a little bit faster than than we anticipated. And now there’s a really kind of cool inflection point in women’s basketball, we feel like we have an opportunity in front of us, there’s a window. And so we want to we want to chase that greatness. And so maybe the timeline has shifted a little bit and we’re hungry just to keep getting better and eventually get to the pinnacle of women’s basketball,” Gottlieb said.
Gottlieb and Megdal later discuss the impact of the transfer portal on roster creation and talent development.
“The transfer portal has allowed you to look at your timeframe, your windows for success, put the right pieces together,” Gottlieb said. “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 do 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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