Lindsay Gottlieb hired to coach USC WBB
Welcome to a very unexpected glass case of emotion
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I have been starring at a blank white screen for a long time on Monday night, struggling with what I want to write about Lindsay Gottlieb leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers after two seasons to become the head coach of USC womenās basketball.
Lindsay Gottlieb is an unfailingly kind, generous person who has gone out of her way to do things she didnāt have to do for the Cal community. She was a part of basketball memories Iāll cherish the rest of my life.
Sheās coaching at USC now.
Logically, I can understand in my brain that her departure from Cal was probably the best for all parties. Logically, I can understand that coaching at USC is a reasonably attractive job.
But sheās coaching at USC now.
Itās not long until youāre going to see footage of her saying fight on while holding up a V hand sign. I donāt say that to torture you, but instead to prepare you for the inevitable.
In spite of it all, I am morbidly curious to see whether or not Coach G can lift USC out of nearly three decades of remarkably consistent mediocrity.
In 1994, Cheryl Miller led USC to a 26-4 record, a Pac-10 title, and made the Elite 8. In the 27 years since, USC is 241-243 in conference play, with 20 seasons that ended with somewhere between 7 and 11 conference wins. In that time USC has made four NCAA tournaments and hasnāt gotten further than the second round.
27 years of being decent but unremarkable. 27 years of being good enough to pull the occasional upset but not good enough to matter nationally. 27 years of just kinda existing without ever really getting noticed by anybody.
USC WBB seems like a program that should be good but isnāt. Five different coaches since Cheryl Miller have tried, and all of them have failed.
Lindsay Gottlieb has something to prove as well. She collected a Pac-12 record of 56-16 over her first four seasons in Berkeley, then regressed to a record of 30-42 over her final four seasons in Berkeley. Frustratingly for Cal fans, the Bears have struggled badly in the two years after her departure, thanks in part to a shallow, inexperienced, and imbalanced roster left behind by transfers and recruiting misses.
The Pac-12 has become the best conference in WBB because over the last 8 years the Pac-12 kept adding great head coaches on top of the programs that were already strong. UCLA, Oregon, Oregon State, and Arizona all have improved markedly thanks to inspired head coaching choices. Itās not a coincidence that the rise of those programs coincided with Calās relative struggles in the second half of Lindsay Gottliebās eight years at Cal. Those coaches are all still in the conference. Winning at USC will be far from easy.
I donāt quite hold the same intense dislike for USC WBB as I do towards other USC sports, or USC as an institution. Itās hard to hate a program that has been so relentlessly bland and uninteresting for the bulk of my lifetime. If Coach Gottlieb starts beating ASU or Oregon or Stanford or UCLA, Iāll probably cackle and enjoy it, and Iāll be happy for a good person on a human level.
But Iām still a fan, and when they meet on the court I hope my Bears show no mercy.
I think of Tedford at Cal - great years and then things went downhill (and then he had health problems and wandered in the woods for a while). And then he surprised everyone by how successful he was at Fresno.
Might be good training for two or more years and certainly distinguishes yourself from others, but a career NBA assistant coach is not where you get noticed and get publicity, though maybe the money is decent and maybe, in most cases, better than as a head coach at most colleges (would love to see stats on that).
I predict no woman will be a permanent NBA coach for many years, even though they could easily be qualified to do so. Guess I'm saying the real prestigious job for a woman's basketball coach is as a head college coach. No doubt you will disagree. You are part of a pack that likes to disagree with me. That's fine. Disagree all you want. Makes things more interesting for me.