Beth Burns He spun his whistle in circles, around and around, as he watched Wednesday afternoon’s practice.
juju watkins They stormed down the court during a timed conditioning drill with matching layups and jump shots on each end. Raya Marshall He attacked the rim before rushing to the end of the line of players. Kayleigh Heckel used her speed to outrun her teammates to corral a loose ball before launching a shot into the net.
Somehow, with all the action laid out in front of her, this was Burns’ quiet moment: offensive drills.
The 67-year-old associate head coach has seen it all in college basketball. She worked her way up from her collegiate career at Ohio Wesleyan to becoming a head coach at San Diego State and Ohio State and returning to the Aztecs again. But the most recent step in Burns’ legacy – her coaching career – may lie in the defensive success of No. 3 USC (16-1, 6-0 Big Ten).
Burns is not undertaking a recruiting search, he said. head coach Lindsay Gottlieb relies on Burns to practice the forward attack to teach, develop and instill defensive principles when the players arrive at University Park. Leave the offense in Gottlieb’s hands. And on defense, let Burns get to work. It has borne more fruit than ever in the 2024-25 season.
“The people I work for, some of the mentors I have, were very defensively oriented,” Burns said. “If I were a football player, I would be a run lineman. “That’s how I move.”

The Trojans rank second nationally in blocked shots per game (7.3), ninth in opponent field goal percentage (34.1%), 12th in scoring defense (54.5 points allowed per game ) and tied for 22nd in steals per game (11.9). of which leads to USC’s third-highest scoring margin at 30.2 points per game.
How did the Trojans go from playing a mediocre defense a year ago to a tight defensive team that rivals the best in the nation? Burns is turning his players into the team’s self-defined defensive nickname: “mad dogs.”
“When we are a mad dog, we come to beat you,” Marshall said. “We want to break the teams mentally.”
The 6-foot-4 center transforms into a new version of herself when her sneakers hit the Galen Center court. Marshall is willing to “run through a wall,” risking her body to reinforce her defensive positions.
Against Michigan, the Lynwood High alum helped lead a press that forced the Wolverines into awkward shots and 23 turnovers. A few days later, he had Nebraska star Alexis Markowski shoot 3 of 11 from the field. USC held both Big Ten teams under 60 points, and has held 11 teams under that mark this season.
“If you’re a mad dog, you’re a mad dog,” Gottlieb said after defeating Michigan on Dec. 29. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a center or a guard.”
Marshall’s effort on defense is rubbing off on his freshman counterparts. Burns pointed to Avery Howell, Kennedy Smith and Heckel as the defensive catalysts (or mad dogs) of USC’s victory over Maryland on January 8.
But what makes a dog mad?
Read more: No. 4 USC dominates Penn State in a game that has deeper meaning for the Trojans
Burns said not all ideas are original.
“I stole it. Everything coaches do, they usually steal,” Burns said.
In her time as associate strength and conditioning coach at Louisville before returning to Southern California for her second career at USC, Cardinals head coach Jeff Walz used a press similar to the one Burns is implementing now.
“I told him, ‘Coach (Walz), tell me the rules,’” Burns said. “Because I just… love this stuff.”
“I put (two-time gold medalist) Angel McCoughtry on the spot and she’s crazy, and whatever we do, I’m not really sure,” Burns recalled Walz explaining to him. “If you can get a talented player at the top of the ball, everyone else will have rules and roles.”
When Burns arrived at USC in 2022, during Marshall’s second season, he identified the developing post player as a potential mad dog, a definite impact player who could lead the point of attack on defense.
Burns said he always liked to pit taller players against shorter players and the opposite, ruining the opposing team’s vision on the court to force turnovers. Marshall fit that role. It was up to Marshall to take the next step, emerge as a defensive leader, develop lateral and vertical quickness and embody the mad dog Burns said he could.
“I had to convince Rayah,” Burns said of Marshall, who averages 2.2 blocks and 1.2 steals per game. “Mad dogs work. … Rayah has not only embraced it, she excels at it. She understands it. She doesn’t do the same thing twice. She pulls balls out of the air. I don’t think people want anything to do with her. “It has helped her on her path to professionalism, because she is showing her athletic ability, her IQ and her versatility.”

In Marshall’s first season with Burns as her defensive coach, she earned All-Pac-12 Defensive Team honors, was named a Naismith Defensive Player of the Year semifinalist and broke Lisa Leslie’s single-season record for blocked shots with 98.
Two years later, probably in her last season in Cardinal and Gold, Marshall is the first to tell someone that the credit for her success belongs to Burns: her coach, who takes the time to take her aside before or after Practice watching a movie or Give him notes on how to improve.
“All those flowers I say go to Coach B,” Marshall said. “I feel like watching movies is something I could never imagine about basketball. So I really appreciate the knowledge she shares about me, on my part too. Having her is a blessing to me.”
Burns sends Marshall Internet memes about hydration on days off, the senior said, making her laugh but also focusing on the prize as the Big Ten season progresses and long trips continue.
“Anyone who knows Coach B loves her,” Marshall said. “How she is on the court are two different personalities from what she is off the court. They will push you, challenge you and motivate you too. “You’re going to be hungry.”
USC has all but clinched another berth in the NCAA tournament. The Trojans are yet to lose in Big Ten action and with Watkins commanding the offense and Marshall leading the Mad Dogs on defense, an NCAA title doesn’t seem impossible.
For Burns, however, the thrill he gets from coaching could already be national championship level if you ask players like Marshall.
Now, it’s up to the mad dogs (including six players who average more than one steal per game) to close the deal and raise a banner.
“I’ve been teaching for over 40 years,” Burns said. “If I didn’t love doing it and if I wasn’t effective at doing it, I’m sure I wouldn’t do it. I love teaching. They give me joy and energy. They give me gray hair. “These kids are good kids who want to be good.”
This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.