USC Women's Basketball: Why Lindsay Gottlieb Is "Excited" For JuJu Watkins Post-UConn

Eva Geitheim | Apr 2, 2024

Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

A historic freshman season comes to a close as JuJu Watkins and USC lost 80-73 to UConn in the NCAA Elite Eight. In a hard-fought game in which Watkins scored 29 points and garnered 10 rebounds as she set the NCAA freshman scoring record, the Trojans came up short of advancing to the Final Four.

The loss was of course a disappointing end for the season to Watkins and USC, but head coach Lindsay Gottlieb is confident that this will only motivate Watkins going forward.

"I've only ever seen her respond to anything adverse in incredibly positive ways," Gottlieb said, via ESPN's Kevin Pelton. "She works harder than anyone I know. Her mind is always in the right place. She's going to have to take on some different things, right? Now it's team, leadership, things that aren't basketball related. I'm excited for her to really walk into everything that's coming for her. There's no question in my mind, you give her something adverse, she's going to use that just to get better."

It's hard to imagine Watkins has room to grow after already becoming one of the best players in college basketball while earning first-team All-American honors and finishing second in scoring with an average of 27.0 points per game.

Yet as Gottlieb pointed out, Watkins is phenomenal at rebounding after facing a challenge. After losing their first game of the season to rival USC in December, Watkins scored over thirty points in their next two games against UCLA, both Trojan wins. When Watkins was held to less than thirty points in a loss to Washington, she rebounded with a USC single-game record 51 points against Stanford, the top team in the Pac-12.

Losing in the NCAA Elite Eight is easily the biggest challenge Watkins and USC faced this season. With a whole offseason to rebound and come back stronger next season, opponents should be scared of what Watkins could achieve next year.