New UCSB Women’s Basketball Coach
Lindsay Gottlieb Replaces Already Legendary Mark French
The championship UCSB women’s basketball team, which soared to prominence under Coach Mark French, has a new head coach now: Lindsay Gottlieb, fresh from a three-year stint as women’s basketball assistant head coach at UC Berkeley.
Gottlieb has enormous shoes to fill: French, the UCSB squad’s third coach since the women’s team began competing, and who announced his retirement in April after 21 seasons, was described as “UCSB’s all time winningest coach.” He led the Gauchos to 13 Big West Conference championships and their r participation one dozen times in the NCAA Tournament.
Gottlieb, born in Scarsdale, New York, played basketball at Brown University, where she graduated in 1999 with a BA in political science; she went on to coach during her years at Syracuse University where she earned a Masters in the Philosophy of Education. At a press conference on May 16 introducing her to the public, Chancellor Yang said that he was “thrilled” to welcome Gottlieb and that he and his wife would continue to attend the games; Gottlieb also said she was “thrilled” to be at UCSB.
