USC Women's Basketball: Lindsay Gottlieb Signing Lengthy Contract Extension

She'll be in charge for a good long while!

USC Trojans women's basketball head coach Lindsay Gottlieb wrapped up her third season with the program in extremely encouraging fashion.

Thanks largely to the play of First Team All-American freshman shooting guard JuJu Watkins and All-Pac-12 forward/center Rayah Marshall, Gottlieb helped lead the Women of Troy to their first Elite Eight berth in 30 years, where the club fell 80-73 to Geno Auriemma's UConn Huskies. The team finished with a stellar 29-6 record.

With Watkins and Marshall poised to return next season, plus the graduation of top competitors like South Carolina center Kamilla Cardoso, Iowa Hawkeyes point guard Caitlin Clark, and LSU Tigers power forward Angel Reese, and the addition of a well-regarded recruiting class (ranked as No. 1 in the nation by ESPN), USC could go even further next year.

Sources inform Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN that Gottlieb, 46, will now be at the helm of the team for many years to come. She has reportedly inked a contract extension deal that will keep her with the program through 2030.

Following head coaching stints at UC Santa Barbara from 2008-11 (where she posted a 56-39 overall record and one NCAA Tournament appearance), the Cal Golden Bears from 2011-19 (where she went 179-89 and led the club to the Big Dance seven of nine times, including one Final Four appearance), she linked up the Clevelad Cavaliers as an assistant coach from 2019-21.

In her tenure with the Cardinal and Gold so far, Gottlieb has quickly brought the team back to national prominence. All told, USC boasts a 62-32 record across Gottlieb's three seasons in control, including two straight NCAA Tournament runs. Two of Gottlieb's most recent charges, McKenzie Forbes and Kaitlyn Davis, were each selected in the third round of the WNBA draft.

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