When Lindsay Gottlieb thinks again to the beginning, earlier than USC was about to turn out to be the largest factor in girls’s faculty basketball — and perhaps faculty basketball general — her thoughts travels to a cellphone name 3½ years in the past. She had simply taken the job at USC, inheriting a once-elite program that hadn’t been related in a quarter-century. Gottlieb and her household had been in New York, visiting the Central Park Zoo, when her cellphone rang. On the opposite line was Jazzy Davidson, a budding 14-year-old star within the class of 2025.
“I really connected with her,” Gottlieb recalled. However then the uncertainty set in. USC hadn’t competed for gamers 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.’”
USC guard JuJu Watkins and her teammates rejoice in the course of the Trojans’ 124-39 win over Cal State Northridge on Nov. 12 on the Galen Middle.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Instances)
However within the time it took Davidson to decide on her faculty vacation spot, Gottlieb constructed USC right into a bona fide tremendous staff with not simply Remaining 4 aspirations, however expectations, led by one of many greatest stars girls’s faculty basketball has ever seen in JuJu Watkins. When Davidson, now the No. 2 prospect in her class, signed with USC final week, the basketball world nodded alongside expectedly, however Gottlieb took a second to think about that first cellphone name.
“That was a moment,” she mentioned, “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 expertise has poured into this system ever since its Elite Eight run final season. Not simply the No. 1 highschool recruiting class, however the prime switch haul, too, with a star in Stanford switch Kiki Iriafen who’s anticipated to be a prime three choose within the WNBA draft in April.
The sudden gravitational pull towards Troy begins with Watkins, a sophomore who has already surpassed 1,000 profession factors and enters this season working in a distinct stratosphere of stardom than any participant who got here earlier than her outdoors of former Iowa star Caitlin Clark. A-list athletes have already flocked to see Watkins and snap images together with her. Manufacturers together with Gatorade and Nike have already inked title, picture and likeness endorsement offers together with her. And on Saturday, simply earlier than No. 3 USC faces off with No. 5 Notre Dame in a marquee matchup on NBC, the community will debut the primary episode of “On the Rise,” a docuseries following — and produced by — Watkins.
That dynamic is actually completely different from something Gottlieb has handled earlier than.
“This is a new year for me, for a number of reasons,” Gottlieb mentioned. “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 Instances spoke with Gottlieb, a former NBA assistant coach who not too long ago earned her three hundredth head teaching win, in regards to the adjustments at USC and inside faculty basketball and the expectations that include them. The next dialog has been edited for size and readability.
USC guard JuJu Watkins shoots over a Cal State Northridge double-team throughout a blowout win on the Galen Middle on Nov. 12.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Instances)
Final yr was clearly such an necessary, distinctive second for girls’s basketball.Caitlin Clark is within the WNBA now. What do you’re feeling like that subsequent step is, particularly on the faculty degree?
I believe it simply continues to maneuver ahead. I don’t know if there will probably be a singular second in the way in which that the Caitlin impact or Caitlin and Angel Reese — that positively introduced lots of people to the desk. However I believe now it continues to evolve round issues which are actually simply part of our sport. Unimaginable gamers. Nice tales. After which — this comparability has been made earlier than — however the Magic Johnson-Larry Fowl factor was simply so huge and new, after which, it was, properly, wait a second, right here comes Michael Jordan. The sport type of took off differently. So I don’t suppose we’ll flip again by way of the eye, however I believe now it’s going to proceed on a trajectory going ahead. There are extra individuals protecting girls’s faculty basketball this yr. There are extra individuals on the market. So the tales are right here and have been right here, and it continues to develop. We’re lucky that the school sport is shifting from Caitlin and does have JuJu, does have [Connecticut star] Paige [Bueckers], does have [Notre Dame’s] Hannah [Hidalgo]. There’s different huge stars which are able to take that on. However actually, the sport has all the time had stars.
As we’ve seen since, there are some pitfalls of ascending to that subsequent degree of recognition as a sport …
I imply, have a look at the WNBA. Half the coaches had been fired. I imply, have a look at the toxicity on social media. Whenever you soar to a different degree, it’s slightly bit like, ‘Careful what you wished for here.’ Now there are individuals protecting girls’s basketball for the correct causes, and there are individuals protecting it for clicks. There’s extra trolls on social media. And I do know one of many responses is, properly, have a look at the NBA. That’s all the time been there. And I believe in girls’s basketball, we will say, ‘Yeah, but it’s OK to place it off. It’s OK to not settle for that that’s the place we go.’ There was a lot racist and misogynistic language round it this yr, and nobody desires that. You need protection, and controversy is OK, and also you need debate. Morning speak reveals, I’m nice with all of that. However one of many downfalls actually has been how divisive a few of the language is. And that clearly coincides with actually the place the nation is. That will be one factor. Then I might say, like, extra eyes on it, if we’re being extra like professional sports activities, then within the WNBA, exhausting issues occur when individuals suppose there’s cash to be made. Individuals I do know and like and care about get fired. Extra turnover, that’s simply going to be a part of it, too.
USC ahead Kiki Iriafen drives to the basket underneath stress from Mississippi’s Madison Scott, left, and Tameiya Sadler within the season opener performed in Paris on Nov. 4.
(Aurelien Morissard/Related Press)
Teaching a participant like JuJu, who’s going to be in that limelight quite a bit this season, how do you steadiness your instincts to guard her from these destructive forces, whereas additionally letting her unfold her wings and fly, so to talk, because the marketable star athlete she is?
I might say my intuition with JuJu is to do as a lot as I can to permit her, No. 1, to be glad and fulfilled as a youngster and to be as profitable as potential. It seems to be completely different on a regular basis. In fact, with all of the gamers, I’ve a type of maternal safety intuition, and I’ve an intuition — I wish to get out of her manner and let her be the artist, inventive basketball participant she is. Let’s do what we will to place guardrails in place, the place her greatness and her reputation can soar, however ensuring we all the time have her security in thoughts. The administration has actually helped me with that as properly. You don’t know what you don’t know, however now that we’ve got considerably of a blueprint — we’ve actually talked to Iowa plenty of occasions about issues that they skilled and what we will look to. We’ve tried to be proactive. However as a basketball participant, like, my human reference to JuJu comes first. As a result of I believe she’ll be at her finest when she is aware of and believes she will be able to belief me. We’re all the time on the identical web page with what the staff objectives are and what she’s dealing with. I simply attempt to present up for her in that manner. Like I mentioned, get out of the way in which, and let her be nice. But in addition be there as somebody who makes her higher and helps her when she wants it.
Is there something particularly you discovered from Iowa if you spoke with them about their expertise with Caitlin Clark?
A pair issues. Our administration has talked to them nearly how they dealt with every little thing from autographs and safety to sport day issues. 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 time, like, ‘Help me. What do I do to make JuJu’s expertise the most effective?’ We’ve tried our greatest to achieve out. And I’ve tapped into my NBA experiences and folks I do know to grasp the mindset when your life is slightly completely different, in the way in which JuJu’s is now.
USC guard JuJu Watkins is surrounded by followers as she indicators autographs after the Trojans beat Cal State Northridge on Nov. 12 on the Galen Middle.
(Ryan Solar / Related Press)
This staff has a stockpile of expertise. However, clearly, there are different intangible elements at play for a program to go from good to nice. What do you’re feeling like is the largest problem for this staff in making that leap?
I believe dealing with expectations and dealing with, you already know, particular person objectives concurrently the staff objectives. It’s problem to have. I’m completely sure and really assured that this staff desires to win. They wouldn’t be right here in the event that they didn’t wish to win. We don’t need individuals to enroll to simply be the one. That’s simply the way in which we’ve constructed the roster. To me, that’s a relentless problem, simply to ensure I’m pushing all the correct buttons. However each coach has challenges and that’s one to have. I wouldn’t shrink back from it. Then, simply the expectations. None of us have been on this scenario earlier than. Kiki has come from an unimaginable program. [Point guard Talia von Oelhoffen] comes from an unimaginable program. We had numerous success final yr. However nobody has been preseason no matter we’re, with the expectations. So we’re simply making an attempt to be prepared and get higher on daily basis and provides ourselves an opportunity to do what we’re able to doing.
Now, in your fourth season, it looks as if you’re working a very completely different job. The place do you’re feeling like your job has modified probably the most?
We don’t have sufficient time [laughs]. I imply, it’s so completely different. Even from mid-last yr. However actually from when final yr ended, the conversations with TV stations, with individuals selling video games, with administration on preparing for this yr, with hiring a GM and NIL stuff, with, I imply, even the on-court stuff of managing expectations, none of it’s utterly like something I’ve skilled earlier than. However on the nuts and bolts, it’s nonetheless humanity. It’s nonetheless Xs and O’s and discovering the correct schemes. It’s nonetheless attending to their soul and what’s going to make them the most effective participant. It’s difficult them and constructing them up. The teaching stays the identical. However all the different stuff that occurs every day is, like, fairly completely different.
