The women’s college basketball world was hit with a heartbreaker late Monday night when one of its stars, USC guard JuJu Watkins, went down with a season-ending injury in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Watkins, who was named one of four finalists for the Naismith National Player of the Year on Wednesday, sustained a reported torn ACL injury in the first quarter of No. 1 seed USC’s second-round win against No. 9 seed Mississippi State at Galen Center in Los Angeles.
During an appearance on ESPN 104.5 Baton Rouge on Tuesday, LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey offered her thoughts and prayers to the Trojans star guard.
‘Let me say this, guys, before I hang up. JuJu Watkins is a star in our game and she went down last night with an ACL injury on really things you do in a game,’ Mulkey said Tuesday. ‘Nobody did anything dirty, it was just so sad to watch and see. And I just knew when she went down that it was torn. You just know by the look of the knee, by the reaction on her face.’
She added: ‘(Watkins is) such a great ambassador of our game and that’s going to be the talk of the playoffs from here on.’
Mulkey, who was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020, also gave a message to USC and Trojans coach Lindsay Gottlieb as they prepare for their second consecutive Sweet 16 appearance by pointing to one of her own players, Sa’Myah Smith.
‘This is fixable. This is fixable. Sa’Myah Smith is a great example of that,’ Mulkey said. ‘She’s been through two ACL tears, one of each knee.’
Watkins ends her sophomore campaign ranked fifth in the nation in scoring, averaging 23.9 points per game.
Mulkey and her program will take the floor in the Sweet 16 on Friday, March 29 against No. 2 seed NC State at 7:30 p.m. ET at Spokane Arena in Spokane. As for USC, the Trojans are set to play their first game without Watkins on Saturday, March 29 against No. 5 seed Kansas State at 8 p.m. ET also in Spokane.
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