Lindsay Gottlieb talks USC, Big Ten and more

USC women’s basketball had a run for the ages last season. They won the final Pac-12 conference tournament and reached the Elite Eight for the first time in 30 years. Their freshman phenom, JuJu Watkins, was even better than advertised, ensuring the best is yet to come for the Trojans as they head to the Big Ten.

Swish Appeal interviewed head coach Lindsay Gottlieb to discuss the offseason moves she’s made to help improve the USC roster and the work she’s doing with Box Out Colon Cancer to spread the word about the importance of screening for colon cancer.

This is technically the offseason for college basketball, but with USC going on a late run, recruitment, a transfer portal and moving to the Big Ten, it’s been a 24/7 job for Gottlieb. She shared all the reasons why that is a good thing.

Yeah, what offseason, Right? I think we’re at a great time in women’s basketball, and the fact that people are now talking about women’s basketball after the national championship game and long before next season starts, speaks to the growth of the game. The way that NBA free agency is so hot in July, I kind of feel like women’s basketball offseason there’s a lot of interest now, which is a great thing. For me personally, I think that the excitement that was generated around USC women’s basketball really hasn’t died down, which is great.

Our players have been asked to do things in the community. We’ve been invited to various things. We were invited to the city council and got honored there, which was super cool. We went to an Angel City game and got honored on the field. JuJu was the Falconer at a LAFC game. Just a lot of really cool opportunities. That just speaks to the the growth of our program and our place in the community, which is neat.

USC stars like Watkins getting a chance to be even more involved in the community and step away from the court, even for just a brief moment, is great.

However, while USC exceeded most people’s expectations, they still fell short of the ultimate goal of winning a national title. Gottlieb discussed what she was looking for in the transfer portal to improve the roster and how Talia von Oelhoffen and Kiki Iriafen fit that mold.

We felt like we needed some veteran players. We did graduate three starters and some really impactful players and most of our senior leadership. And so we went into the portal saying we wanted a combo guard, somebody who could help ball handling and potentially play some point guard but also be on the floor not as the point guard. Talia von Oelhoffen, when she came in the portal, just kind of fit that perfectly. She’s a winner. She’s versatile. She can really pass the ball. She can shoot it, she can play in transition, she can defend. So we were excited about her and being able to get that fit.

And then, we felt like Kiki Iriafen was far and away the best player in the transfer portal period at any position and, in particular, fits a need for us. She’s a versatile post player. She can score it, rebound it. I think we haven’t even begun to see what she’s capable of in terms of playing in a really up-tempo style and playing in some more pick and roll. So, you know, she obviously met a need for us in the front court, but more importantly, we just felt like it was a chance to get one of the best players in the country that also fits with the players that we have returning.

The roster at USC has been shaken up, but the Trojans also have a big change heading to the Big Ten. Gottlieb delved into how the move to a new conference has altered her offseason work.

We’re excited to step into the most-televised conference. To be on the biggest platforms. You know, we have games that are going to be on FOX’s main channel. We have games that are going to be on NBC’s primary platform. We’re going to play in every major market. We’re going to go to different cities in the country where people haven’t seen JuJu, they haven’t seen our team. So I think it just widens the footprint and we’re excited for that. But it is a challenge.

We’ll spend some time this offseason as a coaching staff doing some scouting, which I normally wouldn’t do in the summer because we know the programs and coaches so well on the West Coast. So we’ll put more time into that. But I’m not trying to instruct a team to go, you know, out Iowa Iowa or out Nebraska Nebraska. We’re trying to be USC and bring that to this conference. And we think we can play a brand of basketball that’s going to be tough for other people to match up with. And so we’re trying to be a really good version of ourselves.

On paper, this USC team looks like a force to be reckoned with, a team that other teams will not want to see come this fall. But, the fall is months away. For now, Gottlieb is focused on collaborating with worthwhile initiatives like Box Out Colon Cancer. She discussed Box Out Colon Cancer and why it’s important for everyone 45 years of age and older to get screened.

I had an opportunity to team up with Exact Sciences and the Blue Hat Foundation, as well as Kentucky legend Jamal Mashburn, really to challenge everyone in the basketball community and beyond, particularly those at 45 years old or older, to try to box out colon cancer by getting screened for the disease. We think about, you know, in basketball, like the best defense is really being aggressive and having good offense. And I think similarly with a disease like colon cancer, you don’t need to be reactionary, you can be proactive and proactivity is getting screened.

And we really believe that the more people age 45 and older who get screened, you catch this thing early and it’s preventable 90 percent of the time. So I’m really encouraging people 45 and older to get screened. You know, I’ll turn 47 this year, and I’ve accepted Jamal’s challenge to get screened. And I’m asking other people to do the same.

Being a D1 college coach is not for the weak. Luckily, Gottlieb is as tough as they come. She’s taking the USC program to new heights, pushing for national title contention and making sure she helps her community battle colon cancer by encouraging preventative screenings.

The future of the Trojans is as bright as the California sun, and with Gottlieb in charge, fans can rest assured that the team will seize the day and be a factor in deciding who will be the queen of the college basketball world next season.