USC women's basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb was profoundly affected by a shooting at Brown University, where she played from 1995 to 1999. The incident resulted in at least two deaths and eight injuries.

Gottlieb learned about the tragedy through a group chat with former teammates and became visibly emotional during her postgame press conference. She spoke passionately about gun violence in America, expressing concern for her former teammates with children at the university, particularly one whose daughter was sheltering in the library. Gottlieb emphasized that such incidents should not be normalized and that human safety matters more than basketball.

Despite her team's 79-51 loss to top-ranked UConn, she remained optimistic about their future improvement.