When a team loses its best player for a whole season, that’s going to hurt. When the best player is not only a very good player but an absolute superstar — a top-three player in the sport — it’s an especially crushing loss. Lindsay Gottlieb knew she wasn’t going to get the best of the best in the transfer portal market when JuJu Watkins went down. Top players were going to go elsewhere to pursue a title, something USC realistically was not going to win when JuJu got hurt last March.
This was a season in which Lindsay Gottlieb had to focus on player development, making sure Jazzy Davidson learned her offensive concepts and that Kennedy Smith could flourish in an unexpected and different context. Kennedy Smith missed several games due to injury or illness and battled through the season like a trooper. Davidson had to endure a college basketball baptism by fire because JuJu — though present on the bench as an extra coach — wasn’t able to be on the court and space the floor for Jazzy.
Advertisement
Stop and consider all the enormous limitations this USC team faced. No real frontcourt. A short bench. No JuJu. No elite transfers akin to Kiki Iriafen. The Trojans were going to have to sit there on some nights and take a thumping, as was the case against UConn and UCLA and in the final game of the season against South Carolina. It’s not a criticism; it’s just reality: This USC team was never going to win a trophy.
Losing in the second round of the NCAA Tournament is not the standard USC set the previous few years, but the previous few years had JuJu Watkins. For USC to actually win an NCAA Tournament game in a season without JuJu — and with Kennedy Smith missing several games — is a notable achievement.
Stop and consider some of the background here. USC, from 1998 through 2021 — 24 seasons — made only three NCAA Tournaments and won only two NCAA Tournament games. Lindsay Gottlieb has made four NCAA Tournaments at USC, all in succession, and has won an NCAA Tournament game in three straight seasons. Gottlieb has collected seven NCAA Tournament wins the past four seasons.
No, USC wasn’t a No. 1 seed or a conference champion this year. That’s what is supposed to happen when a player of JuJu Watkins’ caliber is unavailable. To get back to the Big Dance and win a game represents a strong statement about the stability of Gottlieb’s program and the quality of the culture she has created.
Advertisement
No one should walk away from this season thinking Lindsay Gottlieb coached deficiently. Given the circumstances, she did far better than most of her peers in the profession probably would have been able to manage.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Lindsay Gottlieb made sure the bottom didn’t fall out for USC in 2026
