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USC hires Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Lindsay Gottlieb as women’s basketball coach

In a first step toward restoring its once-illustrious women’s basketball program, USC has poached its next coach from the NBA ranks.

Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Lindsay Gottlieb has been named USC’s newest women’s hoops coach, the school announced Monday. She’ll replace Mark Trakh, who retired late last month, four years into his second stint with the Trojans.

Gottlieb broke barriers in 2019, becoming the first head women’s college basketball coach to be hired by an NBA team when she left California to be an assistant with the Cavaliers. Less than two years later, she’ll take the reins of a program that has fallen precipitously from its once-proud standing in women’s college hoops, having earned just one NCAA tournament berth during the last 15 seasons.