Sports
USC’s Lindsay Gottlieb says struggling Trojans are ‘right there’ despite losing five of six
Her USC team might have dropped five of its last six games, more than it lost all of last season, while the road ahead could be something of an uphill climb, with four of its final 10 games against top-12 teams.
But by no means, at 11-8, is coach Lindsay Gottlieb ready to wave the white flag on USC’s season or its NCAA tournament hopes. Quite the contrary, in fact.
“There’s a ton of season left,” Gottlieb said confidently Friday, two days before USC was set to face off with No. 7 Michigan in Ann Arbor. The Trojans had just fallen short against Michigan State 74-68, the night before.
“We know we’re right there,” the coach continued. “But right there isn’t good enough. We’re not satisfied with that. But for this team, if we continue to figure the things out that are keeping us from getting over the hump, you know, then we think that we can do some damage.”
It certainly seemed that way at the start of January, when the Trojans were 10-3 and appeared to have found some sort of stride without injured superstar JuJu Watkins. But the void she’d left in USC’s lineup became particularly noticeable in the new year, as a blowout loss to UCLA, the largest defeat of Gottlieb’s tenure, left USC reeling. Sophomore wing Kennedy Smith went down with an injury after that, and USC blew a fourth-quarter lead to Oregon a few nights later. In three of their next four games — against Minnesota, Maryland and Michigan State — USC failed in some fashion to deliver down the stretch.
Yet none of those losses, Gottlieb points out, has been all that detrimental to the Trojans’ tournament resume. Not yet, at least. USC still sits at No. 25 in the NET rankings, thanks to its grueling nonconference schedule to start the season. The Trojans are 9-1 in games against Quad 2, 3 and 4 opponents, although they are 2-7 against top-tier opponents currently ranked as Quad 1.
That trend can’t hold if USC hopes to make the NCAA tournament for the fourth consecutive season under Gottlieb, a streak that USC’s women’s basketball program hasn’t matched since Cheryl Miller walked the sideline. But following Sunday’s matchup with Michigan, USC will have to contend with another top-10 team when Iowa comes to Galen Center.
The schedule should get easier after that, with matchups through February against Rutgers (9-10), Northwestern (8-11), Indiana (11-9) and Penn State (7-13), all of which rank in the bottom third of the conference. Yet the margin for error through that stretch, considering USC’s eight losses, is razor thin.
“Our whole mindset is only looking forward,” guard Kara Dunn said. “We have so many opportunities ahead to turn things around.”
Most of those opportunities of late have been on account of Dunn, who has been dynamic since the start of the new year. She’s averaging more than 24 points over USC’s last five.
It was precisely the role she’d envisioned when she committed to Gottlieb and USC, in search of a more free-flowing, pro-style offense. But it would take some adjusting, similar to how it took time for transfer forward Kiki Iriafen to settle into the offense last season.
“I was just trying to find where I fit,” Dunn said.
USC guard Kara Dunn has found her stride during the new year, averaging more than 24 points over their last five games.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
She found it just in time, with freshman Jazzy Davidson mired in a multi-game slump. Davidson has still been one of the best freshmen in college basketball this season, but she’s shooting only 38% from the field this season. Smith, the Trojans’ third-leading scorer, has been even streakier at 35%. Both have struggled especially from the three-point line in recent games, shooting a combined four of 26 over their last three games.
Fortunately for USC, Dunn has stepped up from deep in their absence, hitting 44% of her three-point attempts over the last four to keep the Trojans afloat on offense. Against Purdue, in USC’s only win in January, Dunn dropped a season-high 29.
“I’m really just remembering who I am and who I was previously,” Dunn said. “I’m used to scoring in high numbers.”
USC will need her contributions to continue if it hopes to make any noise come March. There’s little Gottlieb can do now about the limitations in USC’s frontcourt, which has relied all season on a four-way rotation at center. But Davidson continues to make progress in her first season, while Dunn’s emergence has helped take pressure off the Trojans’ impressive freshman.
As Gottlieb gathered her team for a meeting on Friday, she urged her players to learn from the hard lessons of the last three weeks. Now was no time to sound any alarm bells, she assured, with hopes that they stick together from here.
“The only way through a storm is not to pull off of the road,” Gottlieb said, “but to keep going through it.”
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United States skier Lindsey Vonn provided a lengthy update after her crash during the alpine ski women’s downhill at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics resulted in a leg fracture on on Sunday.
Vonn, 41, was already skiing with a torn ACL, but she needed to be airlifted off the mountain in a scary scene. She posted on her Instagram on Monday, saying her “Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would.”
“It wasn’t a story book ending or a fairy (tale), it was just life,” her detailed caption read. I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it. Because in Downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches.”
This is a developing story. More to come.
YouTube TV will start offering customers lower-priced channel packages, including one aimed at sports fans.
The Google-owned pay-TV service announced Monday it will roll out more than 10 plans that will be priced below a full YouTube TV subscription that offers more than 100 channels.
The introduction, which will begin over the next few weeks, is in response to growing consumer resentment over the rising cost for the service, currently available for $82.99 a month. YouTube TV was introduced in 2017 as an alternative to increasingly expensive cable and satellite services with an initial price of $35 a month.
Consumer interest is likely to be highest for the Sports Plan, available this fall. For $64.99 a month, consumers will get the four broadcast networks, which all carry the NFL, plus Fox Sports 1, the NBC Sports Network and all of the ESPN channels. New subscribers will be offered a one-year introductory rate of $54.99 a month.
YouTube will also offer a Sports + News plan, which combine the two most-watched genres in the pay TV bundle. For $71.99 a month, consumers get the sports package and news networks CNN, Fox News, MS NOW, Bloomberg, C-SPAN and Fox Business. The introductory rate is $56.99.
The new plans will aim to compete with the direct to consumer offering of ESPN, which is available in tandem with Fox One, a service combining Fox Corp’s news and sports channels. The two are being offered together for $39.99 a month.
Over the last two years, El Segundo-based DirecTV rolled out smaller packages of channels aimed at consumers who no longer want a big monthly bill for networks they don’t watch. The satellite TV service now offers smaller genre packages of channels and streaming apps that cater to a particular interest available at a lower price — designed for news junkies, sports fans, children and Spanish-language speakers.
Pay-TV providers are under pressure to provide more pricing options to consumers to keep them from cutting the cord.
At the same time, carriage negotiations with programmers are more fraught, often leading to standoffs where channels are pulled, disrupting service to customers.
Disney’s channels, including ESPN, were off of YouTube TV for nearly 15 days last fall. Separately, YouTube TV customers lost access to Univision’s Spanish-language channels for two months, which drew the attention of legislators on both sides of the political spectrum.
YouTube, which has about 10 million subscribers, is also offering an Entertainment Plan that includes the major broadcast networks and an array of cable channels including FX, Hallmark, Comedy Central, Bravo, Paramount, Food Network and HGTV at $54.99 a month and an introductory rate of $44.99.
A News + Entertainment + Family Plan — which combines, news, entertainment and children’s channels including Disney Channel, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, will be available for $69.99 a month and an introductory rate of $59.99.
Sports
Austrian snowboarder strips down in cold temperatures during wild celebration after winning Olympic gold
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Adrenaline was running high for Austrian snowboarder Benjamin Karl after winning a second straight Olympic gold medal in the men’s parallel giant slalom on Sunday.
And that adrenaline had him not feeling the cold temperatures, as he ripped off his jacket and clothes in celebration.
Karl, 40, was flexing his arms and screaming, ripping off his jacket and four layers of clothes during his celebration. He was even seen face down on the snow, which was surely cold, but he didn’t care.
Gold medalist Benjamin Karl of Team Austria reacts after winning the Men’s Parallel Giant Slalom Big Final on day two of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Livigno Snow Park on Feb. 8, 2026 in Livigno, Italy. (Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
Karl was an Olympic gold medalist once again, and that’s all that mattered at the moment.
Before his medal-winning run, Karl was trailing South Korea’s Kim Sang-kyum for most of the final race, when he took full advantage of Kim’s mistake.
US TAKES GOLD IN FIGURE SKATING TEAM EVENT AT WINTER OLYMPICS
Karl crossed the finish line 0.19 seconds ahead of his South Korean opponent to win gold at Livigno Snow Park. Rounding out the podium was Bulgaria’s Tervel Zamfirov with bronze.
Gold medalist Benjamin Karl of Team Austria celebrates after crossing the finish line in first place to win the Men’s Parallel Giant Slalom Big Final on day two of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Livigno Snow Park on Feb. 8, 2026 in Livigno, Italy. (David Ramos/Getty Images)
The crowd at Livigno Snow Park loved every moment of Karl’s celebration, which certainly ranks atop the initial reactions to winning gold at Milano Cortina thus far.
After the celebration, Karl eventually redressed and joined Kim and Zamfirov on the podium.
As the Austrian national anthem played, Karl’s smile never faded.
Gold medalist Benjamin Karl of Team Austria celebrates after winning the Men’s Parallel Giant Slalom Big Final on day two of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Livigno Snow Park on Feb. 8, 2026 in Livigno, Italy. (David Ramos/Getty Images)
He also made Olympics history, becoming the first snowboarder to win four medals. He also won a bronze medal in the 2014 Sochi Olympics, while capturing silver in 2010 in Vancouver at Whistler.
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