Lindsay Gottlieb considers what back-to-back Elite Eight appearances means for USC program

Lindsay Gottlieb loves what the USC women’s basketball culture has become with deep runs in the NCAA Tournament. The Trojans made it back to the Elite Eight this year and did so without Juju Watkins for a majority of the tournament.

Gottlieb credited the young players on the team already understanding what the expectations were coming in. After their run in 2024, the standard was set.

Gottlieb loved the culture shift in real time. As did Rayah Marshall, who’s seen a lot in her tenure at USC.

“Yeah, I would say that I don’t even think our freshmen completely understand how hard it is, right,” Gottlieb said. “And that’s a good thing. That means the expectations and what we were trying to achieve was kind of prevalent and felt every single day. But I do think it takes a lot of work by a lot of people. I think once we lost at this point last year, we asked the people who were returning to be better. We said to the freshmen coming in, the bar’s been raised, and then we brought in some transfers who could help us take the next step.”

Gottlieb also mentioned her veterans, such as Marshall. Building a culture isn’t just through a youth movement and stardom. You need those experienced players who have seen peaks and valleys.

“For Rayah and Clarice to be with me for four years, I just — I told ’em in there, the meteoric rise that they have been part of is really significant, but I also think TVO and Kiki coming here this year changed our program too,” Gottlieb said. “It kind of put us in a different echelon, and I think everyone feels it and now we’re going to get past this stage at some point and they’re going to have their fingerprints all over it even though they won’t be physically with us on the team.”

Marshall echoed the comments of Gottlieb in the aftermath of the 78-64 loss to UConn. The play on the court spoke for itself.

“I feel like the growth of the program speak for itself,” Marshall said. “The moment Coach (Gottlieb) got to SC everything changed from our strength and conditioning coach — we actually were gifted our own strength and conditioning coach when she came to the school. Her contract just wasn’t all about her. She made sure that our locker room got upgraded, our strength and conditioning coach got upgraded, our athletic trainer, we got one of the best athletic trainers. So when our leader demands things, it really shows outside of wins, and I couldn’t be more grateful for that.”