Cavaliers' Lindsay Gottlieb Agrees on Contract to Become USC WCBB HC

The USC women's basketball program announced Monday that it has hired Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Lindsay Gottlieb to be the team's next head coach.

Per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, Gottlieb is signing a six-year contract with the school.

Gottlieb took to social media to show her appreciation for the city of Cleveland:

Gottlieb, 43, will return to the college game after two seasons on J.B. Bickerstaff's staff in Cleveland (she was originally hired by John Beilein, though he lasted less than a season as head coach), where she "played a role in everything," per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

That included "game preparation and player development with the Cavs' strong young core of Jarrett Allen, Collin Sexton, Darius Garland and Isaac Okoro."

Previously, she served as the head coach at UC Santa Barbara (2008-11) and Cal (2011-19). She won two Big West championships, a Pac-12 regular-season championship, led Cal to the Final Four in 2013 and led her teams to seven NCAA tournament appearances.

Per Woj, Gottlieb made the decision to return to the college ranks "after an aggressive USC pursuit to bring her back to the Pac-12 Conference, including a massive upgrade in program salary and resources with hopes of restoring USC to the elite of women's college basketball."

She'll have her work cut out for her at USC—the team went just 11-12 last season and hasn't made an NCAA tournament since the 2013-14 campaign. In the past 24 seasons, the USC women's basketball team has made the tourney just three times.