Beth Burns is USC women’s basketball’s lead assistant coach. She is the Trojans’ defensive coordinator, helping Lindsay Gottlieb formulate ways to shut down opponents in the Big Ten and beyond. Burns used to be a head coach, and for quite some time. She has over 20 years of experience as a head coach, mostly at San Diego State but also at Ohio State. On a recent podcast with USC women’s basketball analyst Cece Clay, Burns talked about the differences between head coaching and assistant coaching.
At USC, Burns can drill deep into defensive coaching. As a head coach, Burns had to formulate an offense as well as a defense. Keep in mind the budgets and resources which went to women’s basketball programs decades ago. Also keep in mind that at San Diego State, Burns wasn’t coaching at a program which contended for the national title the way USC currently does. It was a different world.
Burns discusses, among many other things, the centrality of winning for coaches. Being married to a style of play is less important than figuring out how to use personnel against various opponents over the course of a full season. Doing the conventional thing or the popular thing within the basketball industry might not offer the best way to consistently win games. This is the insight of Beth Burns in a conversation you won’t want to miss.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC’s Beth Burns discusses differences between head coaching and assistant coaching
Reporting by Matt Zemek / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
