LOS ANGELES — A few days ago, JuJu Watkins walked into Lindsay Gottlieb’s office like a different person.
At the beginning of April, she’d broken down in tears at the postgame podium in Portland, mourning the loss of her freshman season as USC’s monumental run was ended by UConn in the Elite Eight. And Watkins never felt like a freshman, as Gottlieb reflected – but she carried herself like a sophomore, entering that office, the two discussing the future in what the Trojans head coach called “maybe one of the best exit, postseason meetings I’ve ever had.”
“She and I challenged each other,” Gottlieb reflected. “We both know, this wasn’t the pinnacle. Like, there’s so much more for us to do.”
A day after Gottlieb returned home from Portland, she hopped on a flight to Cleveland, a chance revisit her family’s old home in her previous stop as an assistant with the Cavaliers, a chance to watch the Final Four march on without USC. Slowly, gratitude emerged from a melting pot of emotions, for a season of inspiration around USC and celebration for a team that lifted the program back to heights it hadn’t seen in decades.
But Gottlieb still stung every time she saw a UConn sign. That could’ve been us.
After a 29-6 season, a Pac-12 Tournament championship and Elite Eight berth, USC has plenty of work to do – losing their triumvirate of Ivy League transfers in McKenzie Forbes, Kayla Padilla and Kaitlyn Davis – but few programs in the country are better positioned for a climb to the top of collegiate women’s basketball. Watkins, after a freshman All-American season, and Gottlieb have three more years to build together. And USC inherits perhaps the best recruiting class in the country, with Etiwanda’s Kennedy Smith, dynamic guards Kayleigh Heckel, Avery Howell and Rian Forestier, and bigs Vivian Iwuchukwu and Laura Williams.
Two weeks after the loss to UConn, the Southern California News Group spoke with Gottlieb, looking to next…
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