How the most interesting coach in the NCAA women's basketball tournament ended up coaching the sport's most talented freshman and had the opportunity to awaken the echoes of the sport's original dynasty in Southern California. To understand, let's go back to Chicago.
Lindsey Gottlieb is here to speak at the Junior Clinic. She is the head coach at California Berkeley, a mainstay in West Coast basketball at this point, and a Final Four appearance. A mutual friend of hers connected her with Koby Altman, the young general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers. She sent John Beilein an email congratulating him on his hiring. Although the decision ultimately failed, it intrigued her as an outside-the-box thinker.
Altman is also in Chicago, preparing for the combine. He suggests they meet while they're in town. Gottlieb thinks this is a little strange – shouldn't he have to worry about what to do with the No. 5 pick?
they sit down. Altman knows everything about her. He talks about rebuilding NBA teams through the draft and the need to bring in players with experience working with players between the ages of 18 and 22. He asked her if she would be interested in leaving her job in the Pac-12 to become her NBA assistant.
“Keep your feet on the ground,” she said. “It completely turned my world upside down.”
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The idea to coach in the NBA came out of nowhere and completely natural. Over the past few years, Gottlieb has been making friends and connections in the NBA, and professional development that had stalled in the college realm once he became a head coach.
She spent time with the likes of Doc Rivers and Steve Kerr, and even received calls from front office staff asking if she knew of any young coaches who might be interested in an internship. And with Becky Hammon's fame as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs, NBA officials have become increasingly interested and open to women playing key roles in coaching and front offices.
But would a successful head coach at a major conference program leave to sit on an NBA bench as an assistant? That won't happen. For men's coaches in similar jobs, that wouldn't even be a consideration. Additionally, her husband, 2-year-old son, and her players were in California. Leaving will affect many lives.
“It was really hard,” she said. “Eventually, I started thinking about what would happen if I didn't do this. How would I feel if I didn't do this? I don't think I would have slept as well if I had said no.”
Lindsey Gottlieb finally says yes to Southern California
To understand how Southern Cal is playing in its first Sweet 16 in 30 years, with a phenom in JuJu Watkins averaging 27 points per game, go back to 1983.
This is the second year that the NCAA has held the women's tournament, taking over from the AIAW, which had previously overseen women's college sports. The winner was USC, a team that won 31-2 with a freshman named Cheryl Miller playing a sports brand of basketball never seen before. Along with Cynthia Cooper and twins Paula and Pamela McGee, they are not only two-year national champions, but a phenomenon that changed the way women's basketball is played and perceived.
Their success has led to USC being branded as an iconic program and associated with Mount Rushmore sports names such as Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson, who grew up in the Los Angeles area.
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But by the time Gottlieb arrived at Brown University as a freshman in 1995, USC's program began to decline. From that point until 2021, USC has appeared in the NCAA Tournament just five times, never reaching the second weekend.
“When I was in the Pac-12, I think we were always afraid of USC because they could still get players,” Gottlieb said. “There was definitely a general mindset that what was holding USC back was, are they really interested in women's basketball? Are they investing in it?”
The decline of USC women's basketball, like that of the school's football program, was emblematic of how arrogance and entitlement have ruined one of the sport's biggest brand names. While other teams in the Pac-12 and around the country were investing and building, USC was on cruise control and the administration, led by then-athletic director Mike Vaughn, recognized that reform was needed.
Simply considering his track record at the University of California (seven NCAA Tournament appearances in eight years), Gottlieb was an obvious choice.if she could do that that What can she do in a school with few resources and a place ready to commit to being good? Her run in the NBA over her two seasons in the league has made her even more intriguing.
There was just one problem. Gottlieb kept saying no.
She eventually envisioned becoming a head coach again one day — “Lindsay, version 2.0,” she says — but whatever that means, she's done with this NBA experiment. I wanted to see it all the way through.
And she loves it too. She loves the language of the NBA and the unique perspective she brings to her staff meetings and interactions with players. She loves scouting her reports and the nightly challenges and she is learning about her X-and-O concepts for her professional game.
She also knows that she is one of the few women in the world who has had the privilege of sitting on an NBA bench and being seen on an NBA bench. She strongly believes that the world and level of basketball is always becoming more connected from professional to college, male to female, and that she has a big role to play in making that seem normal. I did. So she says every time she gets a call from USC, and many times, she says now is not the time.
Then one day, she receives a phone call. She's watching her HBO documentary, “Women of Troy,” about the star-studded team of the 1980s. And of course, she starts researching players in Los Angeles who she might be able to scout if she returns to the college game.
“I thought there was a unique opportunity to bring that history back,” she said.
At this point, Watkins is already the best prospect to come out of Los Angeles in a while, and a scoring machine who will soon become the first high school athlete to sign a national contract with Klutch Sports.
Gottlieb is considering taking the USC job, so he will be making calls here and there to get information about Watkins and future recruiting. she's not stupid
Why Lindsey Gottlieb was ready for a player like JuJu Watkins
Let's go back to November 15, 2022 to understand what's in store for Gottlieb and the University of Southern California this weekend: a chance to reach the Final Four for the first time since 1986. Gottlieb is starting his second season at the University of Southern California after going 12-16 in his first year. There is still no proof of concept of what this program will be.
But Watkins sees the vision. She chose to stay home and play for the Trojans rather than go to perennial powerhouses Stanford or South Carolina. Gottlieb's experience in the NBA is already paying off in unexpected ways.
“I don't know, but I felt like I was able to communicate in a language that was more appropriate for her,” Gottlieb said. “She has the talent that is beyond her generation. I don't think she belongs in her cookie-cutter system and she doesn't belong in her cookie-cutter recruiting process. I think.”
Sure, football games and fancy recruiting dinners are great. But Gottlieb is a basketball nerd at heart and returned to college with his X-and-O education, the best on the planet. When Gottlieb talks to Watkins about spacing the floor, grabbing rebounds and building a transition offense, she's talking about the real-life game planning of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ja Morant.
“In my conversations with JuJu and her family, I said very frankly that I don't think there's a model for what kind of player you are in women's college basketball,” Gottlieb said. . “Even though I'm of the mindset that you can't just put great players into your system, I've always thought about how you can space the court for a player like JuJu, or how you can position the posts,” he said. We didn't necessarily have the tools to visualize what we could take advantage of to move players into vertical space. These are things I see every day. You probably talk more X's and O's and do more X's and O's in two years in the NBA than in 10 years in college. Because you're worried about recruiting and study rooms and everything else.
“There is no question that the timing was perfect for me to acquire a player like JuJu, because we need to utilize her in a more professional style. , because we need to be able to operate in some kind of universe, rather than trying to fit into a box.'' It's a very static system. ”
In his first game at USC, Watkins scored 32 points in a win over Ohio State. That wasn't unusual. While the nation is primarily focused on Caitlin Clark and Iowa, South Carolina and LSU, Watkins put together one of the most impressive freshman seasons in women's history, leading USC to the Pac-12 Tournament title and the NCAA No. Led to seed. tournament.
When Gottlieb took the USC job, he couldn't help but keep in mind that the 2024 Final Four would be in Cleveland. Now she has scored her two victories by bringing that part of her own unique story full circle.
Follow columnist Dan Wolken on social media @DanWolken
