LOS ANGELES – Winners and losers generally have different ways of looking at things. But after USC’s dismantling of UCLA Saturday night in the most heavily anticipated women’s basketball game of the season to date, those viewpoints were dramatically – drastically – different.
For USC’s Lindsay Gottlieb, her team’s 80-67 victory at Pauley Pavilion – the Women of Troy’s ‘ second vanquishing of the Bruins in a little more than two weeks, this one clinching a Big Ten regular season championship – showed the growth of her team.
“It literally took every single person,” she said. “It was such a team effort. UCLA is as good as advertised. You know, we had to be better to beat them. Beat ’em twice to be the champs.
“This is as fun as it gets, right? You want them to achieve their goals. You want them to experience these moments. … We have an entire team in there, players, coaches, everyone, who are champions. And that bonds you more than anything.”
One group savors the fruits of victory. For the other, it only tastes sour. Or bitter.
And while Gottlieb couldn’t help but gush, her UCLA counterpart, Cori Close, had another message: Get with the program or get out.
This sounded extreme, very much so, for a team that had been No. 1 in the country for 12 weeks, is now 27-2 overall and finished the Big Ten regular season 16-2, and should still be in the running to host NCAA Tournament first round games if it doesn’t do a faceplant at next week’s Big Ten women’s conference tournament in Indianapolis.
And maybe that was Close’s point. For several weeks, even as the Bruins continued to win, she was not satisfied that they were at the top of their game. Maybe this got her players’ attention, an evening in which UCLA shot 36.1 percent, committed 12 turnovers that turned into 25 USC points, couldn’t get the ball into Lauren Betts consistently and trailed by as many as 20 early in the fourth quarter.
“Thanks for all the excitement and coverage and buzz that this group in this room helped us create surrounding this game,” she began her media session, then added, “and just really (ticked) off we didn’t show up and do our jobs.
“They (USC) were tougher and more disciplined. They did their jobs, and we weren’t as tough and we didn’t do our jobs. It’s pretty much like this, and nothing to do with that,” she added, crumpling up a copy of the box score.
“We pretty much said, ‘Look, this is the way this train is going. And if you don’t think you can make changes to be on it, tell us now.’ I want to have everybody that goes with us to Indiana to be going in the same direction. So the way we turn it around is people make a commitment and a choice and they be counted on.”
Later, when asked if her team wanted another crack at USC, be it in the Big Ten tournament or farther down the line, she said, “100 percent, absolutely,” and then added this:
“You’re a competitor? Yes. Bring it on. And if we don’t, there’s something wrong. If anyone in our locker room would answer differently, don’t come back.”
Harsh? Yes.
Necessary? Let’s put it this way: Close knows her team better than we do. I think we can pretty much assume that if she’s willing to say those things in the media room, the postgame message in the locker room was just as biting, if not more so.
She’d said a few weeks ago, when the Bruins were still undefeated, that “creating a sense of discomfort when we are below the standard, when the game doesn’t provide that discomfort,” was occasionally necessary. Saturday night certainly falls into the latter category.
(And no, I am not going to fall prey to the easy one-liner and suggest that Cori has been hanging around Mick Cronin too long.)
Are these teams truly going in different directions? Or is it just a case of USC, now 26-2 overall and 17-1 in the Big Ten, approaching its crescendo at the right time and getting fired up further by the emotion of this ancient rivalry?
Their star is fired up by those blue uniforms, at least. JuJu Watkins had another huge game against the Bruins, ignoring the chants from the UCLA student section and logging 30 points (23 in the first half), five assists, two steals and three blocks. In the first meeting at Galen Center she had 38 points, 11 rebounds and eight blocks. And in four career games against UCLA, she has averaged 31.7 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 38 minutes.
“I think I would be remiss to say, like, playing UCLA doesn’t motivate me extra,” she said, flashing a sly grin. “So that’s an aspect.
“I think when you play with players like Kiki (Iriafen) and the team we have and our seniors, you know you want to do your best. You don’t want to let anybody down. I don’t want to let Coach down. So whatever I have to do to do that and just go out there and have fun, I mean, I’m just out there playing, really.”
This saga is just starting. Both USC and UCLA, as the top teams in the Big Ten standings, will earn double byes in the conference tournament. It starts Wednesday, but both will play their first games Friday.
“At this time of year, rest is really critical,” Gottlieb said. It’s as critical as the work, the recovery. We do treat them in that sense like pros, recovery and rest and me trusting that we’re still going to get the work in with more days, for sure.
“Now, with a double bye, I haven’t thought about it yet, (but) you got to be ready on that first day because another team has played, right? So usually the byes help you later in the tournament. Like we got to be ready to go, but I think we will.”
But, she added, “there’s no question, we put our bodies on the line. They fly around, they need that rest and recovery, and (the extra days will) help us, I think, be ready to go for three games in three days in Indy.”
Without saying so explicitly, Gottlieb nailed the biggest challenge that the L.A. teams, and probably all four of the West Coast additions to the Big Ten, have faced all season, a crazy quilt schedule and insane travel. From that aspect, it certainly makes sense to treat them like pros.
jalexander@scng.com