When Lindsay Gottlieb thinks back to the start, before USC was about to become the biggest thing in women’s college basketball — and maybe college basketball overall — her mind travels to a phone call 3½ years ago. She had just taken the job at USC, inheriting a once-elite program that hadn’t been relevant in a quarter-century. Gottlieb and her family were in New York, visiting the Central Park Zoo, when her cellphone rang. On the other line was Jazzy Davidson, a budding 14-year-old star in the class of 2025.
“I really connected with her,” Gottlieb recalled. But then the uncertainty set in. USC hadn’t competed for players like her in years. “I just remember hanging up and thinking, ‘Huh, well, I hope we even get a shot at this kid. I hope she doesn’t just go to Stanford.’”
But in the time it took Davidson to choose her college destination, Gottlieb built USC into a bona fide super team with not just Final Four aspirations, but expectations, led by one of the biggest stars women’s college basketball has ever seen in JuJu Watkins. When Davidson, now the No. 2 prospect in her class, signed with USC last week, the basketball world nodded along expectedly, but Gottlieb took a second to think of that first phone call.
“That was a moment,” she said, “where it was like, ‘Wow, we really got that kid. We built something worthy of the best players in the country saying, ‘This is the right fit for me.’”
A tidal wave of talent has poured into the program ever since its Elite Eight run last season. Not just the No. 1 high school recruiting class, but the top transfer haul, too, with a star in Stanford transfer Kiki Iriafen who’s expected to be a top three pick in the WNBA draft in April.
The sudden gravitational pull toward Troy starts with Watkins, a sophomore who has already surpassed 1,000 career points and enters this season operating in a different stratosphere of stardom than any player who came before her outside of former Iowa star Caitlin Clark. A-list athletes have already flocked to see Watkins and snap photos with her. Brands including Gatorade and Nike have already inked name, image and likeness endorsement deals with her. And on Saturday, just before No. 3 USC faces off with No. 5 Notre Dame in a marquee matchup on NBC, the network will debut the first episode of “On the Rise,” a docuseries following — and produced by — Watkins.
That dynamic is certainly different from anything Gottlieb has dealt with before.
Read more: USC star JuJu Watkins reaches 1,000-point mark faster than Caitlin Clark
“This is a new year for me, for a number of reasons,” Gottlieb said. “I’m trying to figure out how to embrace the talent we have and the expectations that we have and doing right by this group. That’s what I would do every year, no matter what the circumstance was. But things that are coming at me are different than they were even six months ago.”
The Times spoke with Gottlieb, a former NBA assistant coach who recently earned her 300th head coaching win, about the changes at USC and within college basketball and the expectations that come with them. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Last year was obviously such an important, unique moment for women’s basketball.Caitlin Clark is in the WNBA now. What do you feel like that next step is, especially at the college level?
I think it just continues to move forward. I don’t know if there will be a singular moment in the way that the Caitlin effect or Caitlin and Angel Reese — that definitely brought a lot of people to the table. But I think now it continues to evolve around things that are really just a part of our sport. Incredible players. Great stories. And then — this comparison has been made before — but the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird thing was just so big and new, and then, it was, well, wait a second, here comes Michael Jordan. The game kind of took off in a different way. So I don’t think we’ll turn back in terms of the attention, but I think now it will continue on a trajectory going forward. There are more people covering women’s college basketball this year. There are more people out there. So the stories are here and have been here, and it continues to grow. We’re fortunate that the college game is shifting from Caitlin and does have JuJu, does have [Connecticut star] Paige [Bueckers], does have [Notre Dame’s] Hannah [Hidalgo]. There’s other big stars that are ready to take that on. But really, the game has always had stars.
Read more: How Lindsay Gottlieb blends family into USC’s ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ season
As we’ve seen since, there are some pitfalls of ascending to that next level of popularity as a sport …
I mean, look at the WNBA. Half the coaches were fired. I mean, look at the toxicity on social media. When you jump to another level, it’s a little bit like, ‘Careful what you wished for here.’ Now there are people covering women’s basketball for the right reasons, and there are people covering it for clicks. There’s more trolls on social media. And I know one of the responses is, well, look at the NBA. That’s always been there. And I think in women’s basketball, we can say, ‘Yeah, but it’s OK to put it off. It’s OK to not accept that that’s where we go.’ There was so much racist and misogynistic language around it this year, and no one wants that. You want coverage, and controversy is OK, and you want debate. Morning talk shows, I’m great with all of that. But one of the downfalls certainly has been how divisive some of the language is. And that obviously coincides with certainly where the country is. That would be one thing. Then I would say, like, more eyes on it, if we are being more like pro sports, then in the WNBA, hard things happen when people think there’s money to be made. People I know and like and care about get fired. More turnover, that’s just going to be part of it, too.
Coaching a player like JuJu, who is going to be in that limelight a lot this season, how do you balance your instincts to protect her from those negative forces, while also letting her spread her wings and fly, so to speak, as the marketable star athlete she is?
I would say my instinct with JuJu is to do as much as I can to allow her, No. 1, to be happy and fulfilled as a young person and to be as successful as possible. It looks different all the time. Of course, with all the players, I have a kind of maternal protection instinct, and I have an instinct — I want to get out of her way and let her be the artist, creative basketball player she is. Let’s do what we can to put guardrails in place, where her greatness and her popularity can soar, but making sure we always have her safety in mind. The administration has really helped me with that as well. You don’t know what you don’t know, but now that we have somewhat of a blueprint — we’ve really talked to Iowa a number of times about things that they experienced and what we can look to. We’ve tried to be proactive. But as a basketball player, like, my human connection with JuJu comes first. Because I think she’ll be at her best when she knows and believes she can trust me. We’re always on the same page with what the team goals are and what she’s facing. I just try and show up for her in that way. Like I said, get out of the way, and let her be great. But also be there as someone who makes her better and helps her when she needs it.
Is there anything in particular you learned from Iowa when you spoke with them about their experience with Caitlin Clark?
A couple things. Our administration has talked to them just about how they handled everything from autographs and security to game day things. I’ve talked to [former Iowa coach] Lisa Bluder about, like, ‘What was it like coaching with all the eyes and all the attention Caitlin and the team was facing?’ I talked to Caitlin herself this summer, like, ‘Help me. What do I do to make JuJu’s experience the best?’ We’ve tried our best to reach out. And I’ve tapped into my NBA experiences and people I know to understand the mindset when your life is a little different, in the way JuJu’s is now.
This team has a stockpile of talent. But, obviously, there are other intangible factors at play for a program to go from good to great. What do you feel like is the biggest challenge for this team in making that leap?
I think handling expectations and handling, you know, individual goals at the same time as the team goals. It’s a good challenge to have. I am utterly certain and very confident that this team wants to win. They wouldn’t be here if they didn’t want to win. We don’t want people to sign up to just be the one. That’s just the way we’ve constructed the roster. To me, that’s a constant challenge, just to make sure I’m pushing all the right buttons. But every coach has challenges and that’s a good one to have. I wouldn’t shy away from it. Then, just the expectations. None of us have been in this situation before. Kiki has come from an incredible program. [Point guard Talia von Oelhoffen] comes from an incredible program. We had a lot of success last year. But no one has been preseason whatever we are, with the expectations. So we’re just trying to be ready and get better every day and give ourselves a chance to do what we’re capable of doing.
Read more: USC women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb agrees to contract extension
Now, in your fourth season, it seems like you’re working a completely different job. Where do you feel like your job has changed the most?
We don’t have enough time [laughs]. I mean, it’s so different. Even from mid-last year. But really from when last year ended, the conversations with TV stations, with people promoting games, with administration on getting ready for this year, with hiring a GM and NIL stuff, with, I mean, even the on-court stuff of managing expectations, none of it is completely like anything I’ve experienced before. But at the nuts and bolts, it’s still humanity. It’s still Xs and O’s and finding the right schemes. It’s still getting to their soul and what’s going to make them the best player. It’s challenging them and building them up. The coaching stays the same. But all of the other stuff that happens on a daily basis is, like, pretty different.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
