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Lindsay Gottlieb pays a visit to watch Kiki Iriafen play in the WNBA

Lindsay Gottlieb pays a visit to watch Kiki Iriafen play in the WNBA

USA Today22-05-2025

Lindsay Gottlieb pays a visit to watch Kiki Iriafen play in the WNBA Lindsay Gottlieb got to watch Kiki Iriafen play for the WNBA's Washington Mystics on their West Coast road trip
Kiki Iriafen's young WNBA career is off to a strong start. The No. 4 overall pick in this year's draft has scored in double figures in all three of her career games thus far, and recorded a double-double in two of them.
On Wednesday, Iriafen and the Washington Mystics traveled to San Francisco to take on the Golden State Valkyries. Iriafen had a special guest in attendance for the game: USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb.
"Kiki's a pro!!!!!!!" Gottlieb wrote on social media. "So cool to be here."
The trip to the Bay Area marked a return of sorts for both Iriafen and Gottlieb. Prior to transferring to USC last season, Iriafen spent the first three years of her college career at Stanford. Gottlieb, meanwhile, previously spent eight seasons as the head coach at Cal, taking the Bears to the Final Four in 2013.
Iriafen and Washington fell 76-74 to Golden State. They will look to bounce back on Friday night when they visit the Las Vegas Aces. Interestingly, the last time Iriafen played a game in Las Vegas was the 2024 Pac-12 Tournament Championship Game as a member of Stanford, when her team lost to Gottlieb and USC.

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