It has been a predictably difficult season for USC women’s basketball. Lindsay Gottlieb inherited a roster which was not built to contend for a championship or a high NCAA Tournament seed in a cutthroat Pac-12 Conference. The transfer portal offers the promise of quick restoration, but it also can limit a coach’s outlook when players know a transition year is coming.

USC lost Endiya Rogers to Oregon in the portal, which undeniably constrained Gottlieb (SHS 1995)in her attempt to maximize this particular season. USC lost a significant scorer from a roster which was already incomplete. No one entered this season thinking USC was a likely NCAA Tournament team, especially in a Pac-12 Conference which is a heavyweight league in women’s basketball.

As things stand right now, ESPN is projecting the Pac-12 to get six NCAA Tournament bids, a typically strong showing for a conference which put two teams in last year’s national championship game, Arizona and Stanford. USC was always going to struggle in this conference in 2022 before building for 2023 and beyond. That is exactly what has happened … but amid these expected difficulties, Gottlieb’s players have continued to do what USC Trojans do: Fight On.

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