LOS ANGELES – As she watched proudly from the sidelines in Las Vegas in March, tears and confetti and hugs melding together on the postgame hardwood in one post-Pac-12-championship mishmash, JuJu Watkins’ mother Sari offered a definitive take on the coach who’d brought USC here.
“I think Lindsay (Gottlieb),” Sari Watkins pondered, “is the best coach in the NCAA. Because she gives herself space to grow, and her approach is very open – in the development process between her and the player.”
And USC is continuing to bet on that growth from Gottlieb, a coach who’s both honed the finer details and grasped the big picture in three seasons turning around a once-legendary program that had struggled before her arrival. Following a season leading USC to an Elite Eight appearance and its best showing in nearly four decades, athletic director Jen Cohen announced Gottlieb had signed a contract extension that will run through the 2029-30 season, calling the future of the program “extremely bright.”
“We couldn’t be more excited to extend Lindsay and keep her as a part of the Trojan Family for years to come,” Cohen said, in a statement Friday.
And therein lies the key, plain within Cohen’s very first words on the extension: keep her. After an eight-year stint at Cal, two years as an assistant coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA and now a Naismith Coach of the Year finalist with USC, Gottlieb has become a widely-respected name in basketball. With the WNBA continuing to expand – particularly, adding a franchise in the Bay Area, where Gottlieb has long-standing Northern California ties and a relationship with Warriors coach Steve Kerr from her time at Cal – the extension is a shrewd move by USC, attempting to lock her down for at least six more seasons.
“We set out to restore USC to the highest echelon of women’s basketball, and the magic we experienced this season was a byproduct of the vision, belief and efforts of so many — our administration, fans, players past and present, and our entire coaching staff,” Gottlieb said in a statement Friday.
Two weeks ago, in a wide-ranging Q&A with the Southern California News Group, Gottlieb mentioned a desire to “continue to push the envelope” across USC’s upward trajectory. In the first year of her rebuild, USC finished just 12-16; in 2022-23, however, Gottlieb led USC back to the NCAA Tournament, and secured the commitment of Watkins for an ascendance to national prominence in 2023-24.
At nearly every opportunity, Gottlieb took the time to remind her players and media that this could be the first time fans at the Galen Center saw a women’s basketball game. And indeed, USC and Watkins drew hordes of new fans to home games, inspiring the youth of Los Angeles in the process; Gottlieb frequently took the time to point out and emphasize the growth in support around USC, a special energy that exploded after a Sweet 16 win against Kansas in the NCAA Tournament.
Much more than an emotional conduit, however, Gottlieb has been frequently described as a basketball junkie who is constantly thinking steps ahead. There were multiple times at Cal, longtime friend Hilary Heick said, when Gottlieb would have an off day and choose instead to visit a Golden State Warriors practice. Her offensive system, built less on following structured plays and more upon putting talent in advantageous situations, worked wonders to open up Watkins’ game as a freshman and open up efficient looks for role players.
“I mean, we’re hooping,” Watkins told the Southern California News Group, in the midst of the NCAA Tournament run. “Like, that’s what we do. And I think that’s why we’re so exciting to watch, because we just play basketball.”
“And I think sometimes, like, that’s a lost art in college basketball,” she continued. “Sometimes, things get super and over-technical. But I think that Lindsay just allows us to just go out there and play, and have fun with it.”
And the contract establishes – barring another job offer – that Gottlieb will have three more years with Watkins, a tantalizing proposition given the addition of arguably the best recruiting class in the country come 2024-25.
“This is just the beginning,” Gottlieb said in Friday’s statement. “We have much more to accomplish.”