an overhauled roster that includes seven graduate transfers from schools all over the country<\/a>. Gottlieb said the patience of coaches and athletes to weave it all together is beginning to pay dividends.<\/p>\n\u201cI do feel like we\u2019re doing a better job of figuring out our roles and our identities,\u201d she said. \u201cYou just need everyone being a good version of themselves, and I think that that\u2019s what we\u2019re rounding into, and that\u2019s what helped us get the win today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Littleton said her teammates who couldn\u2019t suit up played a big part in the win with their sideline scouting.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I came to the bench they were telling me, \u2018keep shooting your shots there,\u2019 or \u2018this look is over there.\u2019 They were telling me things I wasn\u2019t seeing on the floor,\u201d she said. \u201cOur team is really connected. We want to win for each other, and we want each other to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
USC, now 13-4,won their first nine games before dropping two in a row. With their growth spurt, the team seems to be getting into the swing of Pac-12 play, for which Gottlieb said \u201cevery weekend is kind of like a new lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s because of what we\u2019re doing right. It\u2019s not people having a bad night,\u201d Gottlieb said. \u201cIt\u2019s (that) we\u2019re imposing our will. We\u2019ve been a good defensive team all year, but the competition is rising, and I think we\u2019re rising, and really believing in what we can do on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cardinal, who unleashed a fiery second-half surge in their win over UCLA Friday, looked comparatively passive against the Trojans, who bettered them in the blocks, steals, assists and fast break categories with attack-style play.<\/p>\n
VanDerveer was acutely aware of the discrepancy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought USC played very well. They\u2019re very aggressive. They worked they worked really hard. We we turned the ball over too much. We didn\u2019t shoot the ball well enough,\u201d she said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t play well, and we were outplayed, out-hustled, and that\u2019s just the nature of the conference. You\u2019ve got to come out and play hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to want to be grittier,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have to be a much more competitive, aggressive, grittier team. And\u2026..maybe it\u2019s taking better shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though not dealing with the roster turnover numbers that the Trojans have, Stanford saw three key starters graduate last year \u2013 one of whom was drafted into the WNBA. VanDerveer said the team now needs new emotional leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the last four years, we\u2019ve had people that played extremely hard, and that\u2019s Anna Wilson, Lexie and Lacie Hull. And they really carried us,\u201d VanDerveer said. \u201cSo we need people on our team now (to) play with that passion, that aggressiveness, that competitiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we (do), we\u2019ll do better and if we don\u2019t, this will be the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
VanDerveer said the Cardinal\u2019s rebounding has carried them lately, while their offense has sputtered. More than that, the team needs to handle the details.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need people to do things that we\u2019re not doing, whether it\u2019s screening or getting on the O boards, knocking down shots,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get to the free throw line better.\u201d<\/p>\n
But though there is work to be done, the Hall of Fame coach is optimistic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of opportunity for people on our team. And I think that this is just a time (for players to) say \u2018alright, hey, I\u2019m gonna take advantage of this. This is what I\u2019m going to do.’\u201d<\/p>\n
USC travels north this weekend to take on the Washington schools, while Stanford heads east to take on No. 8 Utah and No. 24 Colorado.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clarice Akunwafo blocks Cameron Brink\u2019s shot. USC Athletics photo. Not long after they could be heard screaming in their locker room, USC players and their coach brought their palpable excitement into Sunday\u2019s post-game press conference with reporters. The Trojans had just knocked off No. 2 Stanford, 55-46, for the first time since the Pac-12 Tournament […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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