March Madness lost one of its most transcendent heroes because of an injury. JuJu Watkins won’t play again in this tournament, and that just stinks.
USC, UConn remain on Elite Eight collision course, but if it happens, the game will be down a star.
JuJu Watkins changed women’s basketball at USC, and Trojans’ national championship chances dip without her.
In a testament to JuJu Watkins’ stardom, and a prodding of just how cruel it is that her NCAA Tournament is finished, the first commercial to air Monday night after she blew out her knee featured Watkins, the Southern California standout with the slick ballhandling, smooth jumper and sweet smile.
Now, anytime we see Watkins on a State Farm, Nike or Gatorade ad these next two weeks, we’ll be reminded that this March Madness lost one of its most transcendent heroes.
Watkins won’t play against Kansas State in the Sweet 16. She won’t play again in this year’s tournament, and that simply stinks.
It stinks for Watkins, an elite talent, a scoring dynamo with 1,709 career points, and a likable celebrity whose array of endorsements mean you’ll see her on commercials throughout a tournament in which she’ll no longer compete.
It stinks for USC, a No. 1 seed trying to win its first national championship in more than 40 years. The Trojans are more than one woman. They proved as much while routing Mississippi State in the second round after Watkins got carried off in the arms of training staff during the first quarter. Watkins, though, is USC’s engine. The Trojans won’t be the same without her.
It stinks for the women’s basketball fanatics who tuned in to see Watkins torch UCLA for 38 points in a February victory streamed on Peacock, or watched on the Big Ten Network as Watkins scored 40 in a weeknight December rout of a mid-major opponent. It stinks for the women’s basketball casuals who would’ve gotten to know Watkins better during this tournament, while she played marquee games on ESPN and ABC.
It stinks for other top competitors, stripped of the opportunity to do battle with Watkins.
Watkins’ injury increases the national championship chances of teams like South Carolina, UConn, UCLA, Texas, Notre Dame and LSU, but LSU star Flau’jae Johnson spoke for many with her social media post Monday night.
‘I pray juju okay,” Johnson wrote on X. ‘Hate to see it.”
No true competitor wanted to see this.
‘Seeing her go down was really tough,’ Mississippi State senior Jerkaila Jordan said.
JuJu Watkins injury denies rematch with UConn’s Paige Bueckers
USC remains on course to clash with UConn in the Elite Eight. That billing would have put Watkins and Paige Bueckers on the court together again. The Huskies beat the Trojans last season in the Elite Eight. Watkins and Bueckers combined for 57 points in that game.
UConn trounced South Dakota State on Monday behind Bueckers’ 34 points, and, afterward, Huskies coach Geno Auriemma jokingly encouraged ESPN to cut short his interview so he could watch Watkins.
“Let’s get to her! I want to watch her play,” Auriemma told the ESPN crew.
Didn’t we all want to watch Watkins play Bueckers once more in March Madness, before Bueckers heads to the WNBA.
Knee injuries are all too common in women’s basketball. A knee injury interrupted Bueckers’ sophomore season, and she tore the ACL in that same knee the following summer, an injury that sidelined her for a year.
Watkins’ injury did not occur because of a dirty play or even a particularly hard foul. Her right knee simply betrayed her, as knees are prone to doing. And when Watkins’ hinge buckled during a drive to the hoop, and she writhed on the floor in agony, we all knew what that meant.
USC later issued confirmation that Watkins suffered a season-ending knee injury, requiring surgery.
Kiki Iriafen rallies USC in March Madness victory
The mood darkened in the Galen Center after Watkins went down. She’s a hometown hero who, along with coach Lindsay Gottlieb, made USC women’s basketball games a place to be.
The season before Watkins’ arrival, USC averaged 1,037 fans for home games, according to the school’s data. That attendance average swelled to 6,097 this season in a city with no lack for entertainment options.
Monday’s crowd of 7,808 turned hostile after Watkins’ injury, repeatedly booing Mississippi State in an outcry of the pain and disgust Trojans fans felt.
Those USC fans also cheered on Watkins’ teammates who stepped up.
‘We just want to keep dancing, so whatever it takes is what I wanted to do, what my teammates wanted to do,’ Kiki Iriafen, another SoCal native and a star in her own right, told ESPN. ‘I think it just shows our toughness. I loved how we played.”
Iriafen, a Stanford transfer, went off for a season-high 36 points, and the crowd chanted, “Kiki! Kiki!” Freshman Avery Howell contributed 18 points off the bench.
‘This team rallied,” Gottlieb said. ‘They rallied for her. They rallied for each other.”
Enough talent dots this roster that you better not scratch out USC from your bracket just yet, but Watkins’ injury changes everything. It alters this tournament, it robs us of seeing more March Madness moments from a bright star, it dilutes the potential USC-UConn rematch, and, quite frankly, it just stinks.
Blake Toppmeyer is a columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to read all of his columns.
