Cal women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb earns contract extension through 2020-21

There might be an election going on, but one of Cal’s finest leaders has already earned a second term of her own! Congrats to Cal women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who will be the Bears head coach for the next decade.

Gottlieb has taken the Bears to the NCAA Tournament four of the last five years, including a Final Four appearance in 2013. Cal captured its first ever Pac-12 conference title, sharing it with Stanford that season. Four of her players (Brittany Boyd, Layshia Clarendon, Reshanda Gray and Gennifer Brandon) have gone onto be drafted into the WNBA, and she will be returning Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Kristine Anigwe this season.

Cal had an off year last season, but with Anigwe back and a talented core of underclassmen joining her, it’s hard not to see the Bears once again competing for another NCAA Tournament bid.

Here’s some of the release from Cal Athletics.

BERKELEY – Lindsay Gottlieb, head coach of the Cal women’s basketball team since April 2011, has agreed to a contract extension through the 2020-21 season, Director of Athletics Mike Williams announced Thursday.

Gottlieb is entering her sixth season as the Golden Bears’ head coach and has led Cal to four NCAA Tournament appearances in five seasons, including the program’s first Final Four in 2013.

“Lindsay has done an exemplary job leading our women’s basketball program,” Williams said. “From taking the Bears to their first Final Four to becoming a constant presence in the community, Lindsay is completely invested in the success of our student-athletes, both on and off the court. We are thrilled for her to continue as an integral member of the Cal family and look forward to much continued success.”

The only Cal coach to win 20 games in her first season with the Bears, Gottlieb has an overall record of 118-51 with the Bears, including a 60-30 mark in conference play. The 2012-13 Pac-12 Coach of the Year, Gottlieb was a finalist for the prestigious Naismith National Coach of the Year award that same season after guiding the Bears to a program-record 32 wins and the team’s first regular-season conference title.

“It’s an honor and privilege every single day that I get to be the head women’s basketball coach at the University of California,” Gottlieb said. “I’m surrounded by world-class excellence all over this campus – from faculty, to my colleagues to the students I bump into daily. Mostly, however, I am so grateful to have the opportunity to coach the young women in our locker room. They enrich my life more than they could ever realize, and I truly love the challenge of making them better basketball players and influencing their lives in a positive way.”