Lindsay Gottlieb offers a candid assessment of USC women's basketball

Lindsay Gottlieb has carried USC women’s basketball a long way, but that long journey still has many miles to go. Gottlieb, in an interview with Ahmad Akkaoui of 247Sports, said that while USC has made tremendous progress and is heading in the right direction, the Women of Troy are not yet where they want to be.

“We still feel incredibly hungry. We didn’t do everything we want to do. We were chasing what South Carolina has right now, which is a national championship. We’re chasing what UConn, Iowa and NC State did, which was go to a Final Four,” Gottlieb said. “We’re on the cusp of greatness, but also being motivated to work to get there. I think success in college athletics – improvement comes from three areas. It comes with improving the players currently in your program, comes from bringing in talented freshmen, and it comes from the transfer portal.”

Gottlieb is clear about the forward steps USC has taken, but she rightly doesn’t want anyone to assume that the Final Four and national championship contention will naturally happen just because JuJu Watkins will have another year of experience. No. Other players will need to make significant contributions. Gottlieb will have to coach better after getting outflanked by Geno Auriemma of UConn in the Elite Eight.

USC is in a very good place, but that’s not quite the best possible place. Taking those final steps will be the program’s goal in the next 12 months.

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