Lindsay Gottlieb and Rayah Marshall expect to be great at USC

USC women’s basketball will have two centerpiece players on next season’s roster, not including a likely group of incoming transfers who will want to play for head coach Lindsay Gottlieb and assistant coach Beth Burns.

While Gottlieb is hard at work in the transfer portal, bringing in seasoned components of what should become an even more complete roster, she knows she will have two cornerstones to build around. One is incoming star freshman Juju Watkins. The other is Rayah Marshall, who was a walking double-double machine for USC this past season. Marshall — at 6-foot-4 — was a force for USC on the glass and as a rim protector. The sophomore averaged 12.7 points and 11.5 rebounds per game this past season, all while blocking 3.5 shots per contest.

One could say that Marshall is already a great player, but Gottlieb knows Marshall can evolve even more. Getting Marshall to maximize her potential is important. Crucially, Marshall is willing to let Gottlieb and the rest of the staff push her toward true greatness:

“She’s been coachable, she wants to be great, she allows us to push her,” Gottlieb said about Marshall. “She got a taste of it tonight (vs South Dakota State in the NCAA Tournament). That can be a scary thing in a good way. She’s not happy with the feeling and that’s going to drive her … her talent is limitless. We’re going to help make her into one of the best players she can be, one of the best players in the country.”

If Marshall becomes profoundly better next season, chiefly in terms of finishing more plays near the basket and becoming a more polished offensive force, USC’s ceiling will rise.

The thought of having Watkins on the perimeter and Marshall in the paint gives USC elite inside-outside balance and talent, a tremendous foundation for an improving program with increasingly bigger dreams of what’s possible.