LOS ANGELES — Watching JuJu Watkins felled by a torn right ACL in an NCAA Tournament game Monday night left a lot of L.A. and all of the women’s basketball world grieving, as one fan emailed me early Tuesday, “like someone had died.”
No one has, fortunately. Trust and believe, Watkins will be back. And the top-seeded Trojans are still dancing, headed to the Sweet 16 in Spokane, Washington, after Monday’s inspired 96-59 second-round rout of ninth-seeded Mississippi State.
Still, on social media, concern flooded our timelines, understandably. Magic Johnson posted for all of us when he wrote that he was “devastated to hear the news.” Former Trojans and Sparks great Lisa Leslie shared, “my heart is broken.”
Even UCLA fan accounts let it be known they’re rooting for the Trojans star: “Prayers up for JuJu Watkins.” Michelle Betts, mother of the Bruins’ sensational center Lauren Betts – like Watkins, one of the four Naismith finalists for Player of the Year – posted in support of the Watkins family: “My heart aches for them.”
And then there was this, from Caitlin Clark, the transcendent women’s basketball phenomenon who is a few years ahead of Watkins: “Kid will come back stronger than ever.”
What does it say about this kid? This 19-year-old sophomore from Watts who stayed home to return glory to this USC program, whose competitive basketball artistry brings so much joy to so many that it’s changing the world a little because it’s changing the way so many of people view women athletes.
Whose season-ending, career-interrupting injury has so many people going through it – starting with anger, that palpable ire inside Galen Center that was directed at the Mississippi Bulldogs who found themselves inside a hornet’s nest Monday night, overwhelmed on all sides.
It says a lot.
But it doesn’t say that USC is done for.
Call it denial if you want, but the sad fact that Watkins’ season is over doesn’t mean the Trojans’ is – and I don’t mean that only in the technical sense. I mean it; it ain’t over till it’s over.
Because if USC can muster four more performances anywhere near as potent as what it delivered in Watkins’ absence Monday night, well, maybe don’t bet the farm on them, but don’t go counting them out either.
The last time I covered a superstar game-changer go down with what turned out to be a torn ACL in the second round of what felt like a legitimate title chase, it was 2021 and it was Kawhi Leonard. And the Clippers did, in fact, peter out before the NBA Finals.
But not before they won four more times, eliminating the top-seeded Utah Jazz and pushing the Phoenix Suns to six games.
The Clippers’ supporting actors played out of their minds in those couple of weeks without Leonard; Terance Mann’s 39-point explosion to close out the Jazz is the stuff of Clippers legend.
And Leonard’s co-star Paul George played his best, most ascendant basketball as a Clipper, as if the weight of expectations had been lifted. His season-saving, 15-for-20, 41-point effort in Phoenix only made his subsequent subpar playoff performances in following seasons sting more.
Attrition and exhaustion finally got the best of that Clippers team, but the Trojans don’t have two best-of-seven series to get through without Watkins. They could have four more games.
Four tough games, true, including two – if they faced second-seeded Connecticut and top overall seed UCLA in the Elite Eight and Final Four – that could conceivably be national championship-caliber showdowns before they’d even reached the actual national championship game.
Still, teams playing pressure-free and for something can be dangerous. Underdogs are underdogs for a reason, of course, but they can bite you too. This is, after all, March Madness.
And while USC came into the season with national championship buzz primarily because of Watkins, it was also because of the “super team” surrounding her.
The Trojans are stacked. It started with star transfers Kiki Iriafen (whose 36 points Monday on 16-for-22 shooting were her season high and the Trojans’ NCAA Tournament record) and Talia von Oelhoffen, who joined the nation’s No. 1 freshman recruiting class – and, by the way, senior Rayah Marshall, the program’s all-time leading defensive rebounder.
It’s a team worth tuning in for, even without its mega-star.
“When you throw a bunch of talented people on a team, it doesn’t become a team until you work through some things,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said Monday night. “I always thought throughout the year that if we had something to work on, which would be when things didn’t go right right away, sometimes we stressed out.
“How about this? Something didn’t go right for us. You never want anyone to go down, especially someone like JuJu, that we all lean on in so many ways. But this team rallied. They rallied for her. They rallied for each other. Our fans had our back. I’m just really proud. I think we showed what kind of team we are.”
The Trojans, who are 30-3, finished atop the Big Ten Conference regular-season standings. But, as Gottlieb noted, it’s been pretty obviously a process, putting all the talented pieces together and getting them to click.
On Monday though, they were driven and all going the same direction.
Now we’ll see Saturday, against fifth-seeded Kansas State, whether the Trojans keep the pedal down, how much gas they have in their tank and how far that will get them. All the way? Maybe not. But I’d stay seated until the ride comes to a complete stop.
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