USC's three-week search for a women's basketball coach is over as the Trojans announced Monday they've hired former Cal head coach and NBA assistant Lindsay Gottlieb.
In 2019, Gottlieb became the first NCAA women's head coach from a Power 5 school to be hired as an NBA assistant coach, joining the Cleveland Cavaliers. Before that she coached UC Santa Barbara for three seasons and Cal for eight seasons, through the 2018-19 campaign.
She went 179-89 at Cal, winning at least 20 games and reaching the NCAA tournament in all but one of those eight seasons and leading the program to the Final Four in 2013.
Gottlieb will finish up the NBA season with the Cavs and then return to the college ranks and take over a USC program that hasn't been to the NCAA tournament since 2014. Former coach Mark Trakh retired after going 11-12 this past season, concluding his second stint as Trojans head coach. He was 65-50 over the last four seasons after a previous tenure at USC from 2004-09 that included two NCAA tournament appearances.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Gottlieb has signed a six-year contract with the Trojans.
Wojnarowski also reported that "Gottlieb leaves the NBA after an aggressive USC pursuit to bring her back to the Pac-12 Conference, including a massive upgrade in program salary and resources with hopes of restoring USC to the elite of women's college basketball." He didn't provide any further specifics.
The USC women's basketball program hasn't won 20 games in a season since 2017-18, but the Trojans' rich history -- including three Finals Fours in the 1980s and NCAA championships in 1983 and 1984 -- makes it an appealing job for an accomplished coach.
Gottlieb's Cal teams only advanced past the second round of the NCAA tournament once, but in that Final Four season in 2012-13 she led the program to a 32-4 record in just her second season there.
Gottlieb played collegiately at Brown and started her coaching career as an assistant at Syracuse, New Hampshire, Richmond and Cal.
Gottlieb shares the same agent -- Bret Just of WME Sports -- as USC men's basketball coach Andy Enfield.
