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Lindsay Gottleib - USC Elite 8 Presser · Coaches Corner

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Thank you all. Good morning, Happy Easter to those who celebrate a good
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day to be still playing basketball. In case you're wondering, the easter bunny
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did make his way to the Marriotte, so my children were happy this morning.
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Thank you to my family and the staff for making that happen for our
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children this morning. That was cool. Huge task in front of us.
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Obviously, Yukon is an incredible program, and more importantly, their team this
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year is is playing as well as anybody. But we're excited to be here.
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We still have that joy and gratitude to be playing in the Elite eight,
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and we have a task in front of us that will really prep today
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and get ready to go for hopefully a great game tomorrow night. First question'll
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be down here in front. Good morning, Lindsay, Michelle him from the
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next I asked Ray a similar question post game yesterday. When you bring a
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team who's never been here before, do you learn about them along the way
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or are you fairly confident that you know in your preparations and their readiness for
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this moment. Definitely thoroughly confident for their readiness at this moment, and part
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of that is because we haven't been here and we're creating our own story and
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it doesn't feel like there's a lot of pressure. I think we've been able
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to combine that joy and joy for the game and gratitude for still be playing
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with an urgency and a toughness that you need to win in March. And
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I think the reason I feel confident is we've seen that now for about a
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month. You know, we've grown over the whole year, but really we've
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seen that combination of those two things. So the fact that we haven't played
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in this game before, I think is okay. We've a lot of experiences
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to call upon, particularly from the Pac twelve, which has felt like NAA
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tournament games for the last two months, and then just the lead up to
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this and who we've become as a team, I think gives us confidence.
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Luke Evans, Range, Gunny Register, Lindsay Happy Easter. Is there a
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significance to you to this being the Elite eight, the first Elite eight that
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this program has been in since you know, Cheryl Miller and I think thirty
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years and over the same time frame, you're now playing a program that has
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been at the forefront of women's college basketball for the last thirty years. Is
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there a significance to you that this is the team that you're playing in this
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Elite eight game. I think the awareness and significance of USC's history and the
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incredible women that we stand on their shoulders has been part of our story this
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year. We are really cognizant of, you know, what the USC women's
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basketball program has meant to the history of women's basketball and then to us as
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a team. I think that is significant, and it has been the whole
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season, not necessarily more in this game than any other game. But Kenzie
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said it best when we won the Pact twelve Chamionship. We stand on the
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on the shoulders of the Giants, and those women have really poured into us.
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In terms of playing you know Yukon, I don't think so. I
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mean, I think, to Yukon's credit, they have evolved and become a
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very unique team this season, and that's who we're playing against. I don't
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think we're playing against the history of you know that program. So I think
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the history of our program pours into us. But the game is the game
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with two good teams facing off over here, and then I'll like Thomas Johnson
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daily Trojan coach, you took Mackenzie Forbes to the NCAA Tournament her freshman year
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at Cal went your separate ways. Just how cool is it to kind of
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be in this moment with Mackenzie heading into the elite at a different school than
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when you're initially at Really cool. I mean, it's really cool to answer
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your question. I mean, I just believe that it's core. Women's college
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basketball is so much about relationships. Things aren't always linear. It's really hard
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to leave a job and leave a place. You know, when I left
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Cal for the NBA, that was not an easy decision, and the most
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important things to me were having those young people that I had to leave understand
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why I made that decision and you know, hoping that it's in some way
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inspired them to do whatever might be challenging for them in the future, and
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really kind of in real time. Then Kenzy left and went to Harvard.
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That wasn't easy. She wasn't guaranteed to get in. No one could have
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predicted that I would come back to women's college basketball, at least of all
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me. And then you know, the whole COVID thing and the COVID year.
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It all just kind of worked out. But I think the cool part
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about it is just the story of human connection, and then to see her
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play so well and be such a big factor in this team's success and the
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fun that we're having. It's just she's an incredible young person, her family's
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great, so just enjoying it for her as I am for the rest of
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our players on our team too. Alex and Phil pil ESPN. I heard
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you might have had a little bit of a backstory or some deep connections with
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Gino in Yukon, maybe on a recruiting trip there or to a camp or
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something. Let's clarify. I definitely was not recruited by Yukon. But the
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story is my best friend from literally preschool on but all the way through high
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school, woman named Hilary Howard at the time, now hike, she actually
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was here, flew up to Portland with her daughter to watch this. But
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she was an incredible high school basketball player, and I was her nerdy best
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friend who loved basketball and Gino. I'm sure he would tell you recruited her
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as hard as he recruited anyone. In his book, he talks about that's
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the first big recruit that he lost, and he lost her to Duke.
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She and I have had no fights in our whole life, except for when
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she chose Duke and she said, you wanted me to go to Yukon,
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And I couldn't say no necessarily because Gino welcomed kind of all of us into
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what they were doing. So I wasn't recruited by Yukon, but I felt
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like I had a front row seat to that explosion of women's college basketball.
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It was the Risatti Lobo team. Carol Walters. We would go up and
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watch practice, we would watch games, and so for me that was a
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cool thing to see. She goes to Duke and this is so crazy,
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guys, I feel so old. Me and Hillary and one of other friends
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went to work the Yukon camp that summer. Think about that now, if
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recruit went elsewhere and then came to your camp to work the camp like that
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wouldn't go over that well these days with the transfer portal. But he was
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really really generous to me with his time, with his insights. There were
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times at which he was recruiting her so hard. He would call me or
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we spoke on the phone. A couple of times I was at her house,
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and then when I got into coaching, It was how can I help?
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What do you need? And so I thought that I've always remembered that,
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So yeah, there's that connection there. Lindsay Lindsay Schnell USA. Today,
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Lind's only two Pack twelve teams left in the tournament are the ones that
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were picked sixth and tenth. I wonder do you think that that, you
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know, being dismissed by everyone as part of why you're here or why is
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it that you two are still dancing? Well? First shout out to the
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Beavers and coach Ruik. They've done an credible job. Scott's an amazing coach.
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Obviously they have a tall task today against South Carolina, but I wouldn't
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put anything past that team, you know, I would say maybe less than
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being dismissed. I think the Pac twelve conference was so loaded with talent,
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and I think people tend to go with what they've seen before, right,
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And there was a history with all the people picked in front of us where
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people thought they had more returning talent or what have you. Oregon State didn't
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sneak up on us because we lost them in the Pac twelve tournament. I
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knew they'd everyone returning, so I sure didn't vote for them to, but
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I think each uniquely, each team takes on a story. And for us,
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we have used that underdog thing that nobody picked us and we got to
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prove things to people. And I think Oregon State has used their togetherness and
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everyone stayed and they went through a lot of hard losses last year and they've
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turned it around. So I do think every team takes on a narrative and
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a story, and there is something a little extra special. I think about
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both of our teams feeling like, you know, we had something to prove
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down here. David yaf Goitz from the next coach, I wanted to ask
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you specifically about Caitlin Davis and the impact she's had this year and through the
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tournament. You know, she might not score a single point, but just
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you know her setting screens out there, you know, her positioning under the
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basket, rebounding wise, challenging shots at the rim. You know, obviously
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you know Yukon has a talented front court with Leah Edwards there, Just you
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know, what kind of impact has she had for you this year and what
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are you gonna need out of her going into tomorrow's game. She's had an
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incredible impact. I mean way beyond the numbers, like winning plays, winning
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mentality, toughness. I mean, I tell people her game against UCLA in
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the semi final of the Pac twelve tournament was one of the most incredible displays
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of winning basketball that I've seen and continually assument through many games. Multiple efforts,
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guards a lot of different people, grit, toughness, can make the
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assist. I mean, she's had you know, a couple of those assists
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on the game winning you know, three's that we've hit her down the stretch.
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So she's invaluable to us. She can guard multiple positions since she came
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back. You know, she had an injury early in the season and then
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followed that up with a concussion. It was kind of just out of rhythm.
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Since she's caught her rhythm, it just gives us a lot of versatility.
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We do feel like between Reya, Clarice and Kadi, we have a
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kind of three headed monster in the post. But then Katie can also play
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and guard on the perimeter. So we really need her. We need her
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and our successes directly linked I think to her being on our team. I
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am seeing everyone sayds, we got a lot of people want to ask questions.
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I'm doing my best to get around as many as I can. We'll
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go there and then in back corner Jesse Docherty with the Washington Post, lindsay,
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if a performance unit program came to the women's side in the near future,
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I'm just curious if you think that would maybe lead to an increase in
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investment in the sport maybe across the country. And then maybe that's not a
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huge thing. And like say it again, if it was came to performance
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units like on the men's side, if teams were yes, yes, I'm
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mumble, sorry, yeah, do you think that could lead to an increase
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investment across the country in the sport? If maybe per gram saw you know,
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a little more of a financial ROI absolutely give us the units. Why
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shouldn't we have the units? Right? Uh, the direct investment? People
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like money, they like return on investment. I think people are starting to
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see that women's basketball is not just a values proposition, although it's great theater
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and it's great entertainment, but there's also, you know, a monetary aspect
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to it. And absolutely there's I just don't see any reason why if there's
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men's basketball that gets units for the for the tournament. Why we shouldn't so
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definitely a proponent of that. Grace Rayner with the athletic oh back right or
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your back left. When you look at the games tomorrow, obviously Paige and
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Juju, here you go across the country, Iowa, LSU, so much
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star power. Caitlin Angel, just what does a day like tomorrow mean to
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women's basketball at large? I said, I thought somewhere today someone had tweeted
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or something rip to the to the viewership numbers. Right, it's gonna crush
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everything. I think we would all tell you, right, it's USC against
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Yukon, and it's LSU against Iowa. But star power drives narratives and athletics.
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I mean, it's why the NBA took off, you know when when
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there were faces to it all going all the way back to you know,
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Magic and Larry and Michael Jordan and so I think it's great for our game.
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I think the quality of basketball has been really high and really exciting.
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But to have you know, stars in these games I think makes people tune
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in. And when you tune in for Juju, you see Caitlin Davis and
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you see Kayleb Pidea Mackenzie Forbes and raying down the list Kayla Williams, which
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is cool and I would I think you'd say the same for the other three
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teams as well. So I think it's great for our game and it'll be
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a good day of women's college basketball tomorrow. Go here and then the chim
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Vicky Folkerson from The New London Day in Connecticut. Good morning, Lindsay morning.
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I was wondering you you were talking about playing with joy watching Juju.
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She seems like she just has that joy that she plays with you. Have
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you ever since she's been here, since her pressing or like yesterday, if
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she went through like a little rough spot, mini slump, do you ever
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sence her pressing or is she always just so joyful to watch? I would
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say that she's always focused on the right things, on winning, on fixing
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something that's going wrong, on you know, continuing something that's going right.
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And I think it's with all that she handles, it's unbelievable that we haven't
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seen her press more. I mean there's been times where I've watched film with
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her after a game and just you know, said, hey, what do
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you see here? Or what did this feel like? Here? And I
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think she's evolved in terms of understanding what's coming at her and how to make
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those reads. But I don't know that pressing is the right word. And
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so I think that's really a credit to her demeanor. You know, certainly
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she's had games where you know, there's a two or three minute stretch where
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she's not getting exactly what she want out of it, But her ability to
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learn and adjust in real time is phenomenal, and so I think you just
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see her trying to focus on the next right thing to do, and it's
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it's really impressive to see from an eighteen year old Ay. Lindsay Timbooth from
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the APA career, you were in this spot what eleven years ago once before
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that's pretty early in your coaching career. What did you take away from that
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experience up in Spokane when we had col In in this position. Yeah,
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one other kind of geno story on that. I remember when we were at
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the Final four and they did some like salute dinner and one of the parts
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of sludentergy get sized for rings, and I was like right next to him
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and he made, you know, some comment of along the lines of Lindsay
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can really enjoy this when she's at her tenth, which is really nice.
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It'll feel like a relief like it feels for me, like you know.
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That was an interesting kind of comment. Of course, shows how hard it
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is to get back. So I remember at the time making the final four
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was incredibly joyous. We had a meeting before once you won the Sweet sixteen
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game. They put the head coaches in the administrative meetings, which they don't
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do anymore, but they talked about like how they put the stage on and
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the roping and all that and that for the first time. In that meeting.
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Heading into the lead eight game, I was like, wow, I
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feel a ton of pressure because I want our players to experience this. You
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get to this point and you want them to experience what's potentially next. I
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would say, all these years later, I'm just able to do what we
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do with this team, put us in the best possible situation that I can
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to win, and then you let the players transcend your game plan and go
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out there and do it. And I think our players have given me the
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confidence to say can sleep at night knowing you CON's an incredible team. We're
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gonna put it to the other best game plan we can we're gonna be the
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best version of us, and we let it go. But for me,
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having them be even keeled and playing joyous and playing as we've been playing is
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the best thing I can do for them, And to be honest, that's
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really how I feel like, that's what we need to do to give ourselves
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the best shot to win. If that makes sense and answers your question,
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And unfortunately we are out of time. Coach, thank you very much,
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thank you, aus luck tomorrow, thank you. We'll have USA student athletes
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up here in about three minutes.