NCAA tournament 2025: USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb feels ‘disrespected’ by selection as 4th No. 1 seed in same bracket as UConn

It appears that USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb is not stoked about seeing UConn on the other side of her team’s bracket.

The Trojans earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA women’s tournament bracket that was revealed on Sunday. But to Gottlieb, this placement as the tournament’s fourth No. 1 seed was disrespectful. She let her feelings be known with reporters shortly after the bracket reveal.

“I never thought I’d be a one seed and feel disrespected,” Gottlieb said. “But I thought there would be very little chance we would be the No. 4 overall No. 1.

“We’ve got a big game here on Saturday against UNCG. We’ll handle it accordingly. But you tell me if you think that bracket that we got should’ve been the one that it was.”

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The other No. 1 seeds include top overall seed and USC rival UCLA that lost two regular-season games to the Trojans before beating them in the Big Ten championship game. South Carolina and Texas are the other No. 1 seeds.

The latest AP poll has USC ranked as the No. 4 team in the nation behind UCLA, South Carolina and UConn, commensurate with its placement as the tournament’s fourth No. 1 seed.

The advanced analytic NET rankings have USC’s placement as a No. 1 seed of any kind as generous. Per the NET rankings, USC is the sixth-best team in the country behind UConn, South Carolina, Texas, UCLA and Notre Dame.

The real issue here appears to be that UConn is under-seeded — and, for Gottlieb, that it’s the No. 2 seed in USC’s bracket.

Almost every metric but the selection committee’s thinks that UConn is worthy of a No. 1 seed. The betting market agrees. UConn (+275) opened Sunday night with the second-shortest odds to win the NCAA championship, just a smidge behind favorite South Carolina (+270). Geno Auriemma’s Huskies are once again a force to be reckoned with.

Gottlieb may not be excited about a potential matchup with UConn before the Final Four. But fans anticipating a marquee matchup of JuJu Watkins vs. Paige Bueckers are in for a potential treat.