I suspect longtime Cal followers might have a different less positive take on Gottlieb’s tenure at Cal. The Bears advanced to a final four her second season in Berkeley. That team was primarily players her predecessor Joanne Boyle recruited to Cal. Gottlieb had some continued recruiting success getting post Kristine Anigwe and guard Jaelyn Brown. Her teams finished 2nd, 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the PAC-12 her first four seasons at Cal. The next four seasons Cal finished 10th, 7th, 5th and 6th. While her last two teams finished the top half the recruiting fell off and she then resigned Cal to join the Cleveland Cavaliers. She left little for her successor Charmin Smith to work with. It took Smith four seasons to achieve a winning record and coached Cal WBB to a 25-9 record and her first NCAA tournament appearance.
Lindsey has done a very good job restoring USC’s program to the top levels of NCAA WBB. I believe some if not a lot of her success stems from the change in USC’s Athletic Department leadership. Lynn Swann paid little attention to USC WBB. While his successor Mike Bohn did hire Gottlieb in 2021 I believe then USC President Carol Folt played an instrumental role in getting increased outside financial support to the WBB program. I suspect that support help get Jazzy Davidson’s commitment to the Trojans.
We’ll see this coming season how well Gottlieb performs without Juju leading the way.
