BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — She’s not taking part in within the Candy 16 and Elite Eight video games this weekend, however so most of the folks round girls’s faculty basketball are nonetheless speaking about USC’s JuJu Watkins.
The celebrity sophomore guard, who was second within the nation in scoring and can seemingly be the consensus Nationwide Participant of the Yr, tore her ACL early within the Trojan’s second-round win final Monday towards Mississippi State. During the last week, Watkins has been on the minds of numerous gamers and coaches nonetheless competing within the event.
South Carolina coach Daybreak Staley has maintained a relationship with Watkins after recruiting her. She despatched her a textual content this week providing her assist and sending her effectively needs.
“JuJu is beloved by all of us,” Staley mentioned. “JuJu is elevating and lifting our sport up with how she performs, with cornering the market relating to NIL offers. I imply, she’s a enterprise herself, and to see a part of that not part of our NCAA Match, one thing is lacking. There’s an enormous void.”
Certainly, Watkins has been in commercials this season for State Farm, Gatorade and Nike. For Staley, what stands out about Watkins is her star-power and the way she’s introduced extra eyeballs to the sport of ladies’s faculty basketball. In December, a daily season assembly between USC and UConn drew 2.23 million viewers to FOX, making it the second-most-watched girls’s basketball sport ever proven on the community.
When UConn coach Geno Auriemma noticed Watkins’ harm, he instantly reached out to USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb and provided her recommendation on how he’s handled gamers of his personal who’ve had these kind of devastating accidents.
“I really feel horrible for JuJu personally, realizing the gamers that I’ve had which have needed to undergo that, how a lot it means to them, what they’re lacking for the entire 12 months that they’re out, and for Lindsay, for her teammates,” Auriemma mentioned. “And I feel the impact that it has on the event, I feel is big from a aggressive standpoint, star energy, and I feel the USC children will in all probability rise to the event and play superb like they did the opposite night time.”
USC and UConn each play on Saturday within the Candy 16. The Trojans face Kansas State and the Huskies tackle Oklahoma. Ought to each win, they’ll meet within the Elite Eight.
Had Watkins not gotten injured, it will’ve set-up a must-watch rematch between USC and UConn, a sport that might have pierced the monoculture as the game’s largest stars — Watkins and Paige Buckers — went head-to-head.
The hope — from the NCAA Choice Committee and ESPN — was that the matchup might have brushed the hype and viewership generated by final season’s Elite Eight matchup between Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and LSU’s Angel Reese. That sport drew a then-record 12.3 million viewers.
Bueckers was compelled to grapple along with her personal knee harm a couple of years in the past, lacking the entire 2022-23 season after tearing her ACL in a summer time pickup sport. She bounced again and has made the All-American First Staff in every of the previous two seasons and is predicted to be the No. 1 decide within the upcoming WNBA Draft.
After seeing Watkins go down, Bueckers despatched her a textual content providing assist and recommendation.
“Your coronary heart breaks for her, simply the devastation that — particularly throughout proper now, in the course of the event, of not having the ability to be on the market together with your workforce throughout a very powerful a part of the 12 months,” Bueckers mentioned. “We empathize for her, we’ve been there, and we all know how a lot it sucks, however you don’t get to be pretty much as good as JuJu when you don’t have an ideal motor, an ideal work ethic, and she or he’s going to assault this course of simply as she’s attacked basketball, and simply as she’s nice at basketball, she’s going to be nice at this restoration course of.”
Likewise, Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles — who can be anticipated to be drafted extremely by a WNBA workforce subsequent month — missed the entire 2023-24 season with a knee harm. Miles got here again even higher this season, rising her 3-point capturing share by 18 factors whereas additionally averaging 15.5 factors and 5.9 assists per sport.
Miles was watching the USC versus Mississippi State sport in actual time when Watkins fell to the ground throughout a quick break.
“My coronary heart breaks for anybody that goes via that. I wouldn’t want that harm on my worst enemy. So it’s only a powerful one,” Miles mentioned. “I feel the recommendation that I’d give to her is to take her time. There are numerous exterior components, lots of people who wish to see you again sooner than you could possibly, and you could rush your restoration, however on the finish of the day this harm takes time, and it actually takes you listening to your physique and what it wants.”
It might be some time earlier than girls’s basketball followers see Watkins again on the court docket once more.