USC women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb’s team had just lost to No. 1-ranked UConn 79-51 Saturday night, but that wasn’t the main thing she wanted to talk about. Gottlieb addressed the mass shooting at her alma mater, Brown, where two people died, and several more were wounded.
“It doesn’t need to be this way,” said an emotional Gottlieb, who first heard about the shooting after the game.
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Gottlieb played two seasons at Brown, in 1996-97 and 1998-99, the latter of which was as a student assistant and part-time player.
The fifth-year USC coach said she had “a million text messages” about the shooting after getting to the locker room.
“Sending thoughts and prayers to my teammates who have kids there,” Gottlieb said, her voice breaking at times. “To the parents who have to worry about their children. We’re the only country that lives this way. The college football cycle has been in the news a million times, and are we going to report about this? Like, it’s the guns. We’re the only country that lives this way.”
Gottlieb said the daughter of one of her former Brown teammates was taking refuge in the basement of a school library.
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“Hopefully, everyone is safe and praying for peace for those who’ve lost people. And that’s that, it’s more important than basketball. We can all be better.”
Earlier, the top-ranked Huskies rolled to a 39-17 halftime lead and never looked back. Azzi Fudd (17 points), Ashlynn Shade (15), Sarah Strong (14) and Blanca Quiñonez (12) each scored in double figures. Kennedy Smith and Londynn Jones combined for 30 points for the 16th-ranked Trojans.
This is Gottlieb’s 16th season as a head coach. She has coached at UC Santa Barbara, Cal and USC and has guided her teams to the NCAA Tournament 11 times.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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