JuJu Watkins' injury shakes up NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. Who's got next?

JuJu Watkins’ injury shakes up NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. Who’s got next?

The NCAA Women’s Basketball tournament for women was lucky that all four No. 1 seeds were progressed to the Sweet 16, but the event on Monday lost that the USC-outstanding Juju Watkins suffered a season that ended in their right knee while winning the Trojan.

It is a tragic loss for Watkins, a Sophomore-All-American and the player who was perhaps best positioned to build on a massive followers to take the former place of Iowa Guard Caitlin Clark as the star of the women’s college basketball. Watkins scored an average of 24.6 points per game last season after he had set a record of NCAA newcomers a year ago.

Watkins’ popularity in front of the court demands its dominance on the square. She has 1.1 million followers on Instagram, which is twice as high that the team takes into account the four best seeds of the tournament in USC, UCLA, South Carolina and Texas. She was discovered in the stands when she spoke to the quarters back of the commanders Jayden Daniels during the games of the opening weekend in Los Angeles and made it possible for her a newly discovered range with sports fans outside of women’s basketball.

So the tournament is now progressing without its greatest draw, and the question is how the event can attract fans without them. Can USC come to Tampa without Watkins, the home of the Final Four? The Trojans are 30-3 and will now look at the 6-foot 3-Senior striker Kiki Ireaven from Stanford to lead them on the square with an average of 18.6 points and a team best team this season.

If the Trojans cannot move forward to the Final Four, this could be a way for a main support of the women’s college basketball, the Uconn-Huskies with 2-SAATE NR. Uconn has won 11 national titles under coach Geno Auriemma, but since 2016 none, although they have achieved six of the last eight final four since their last championship. USC presented Uconn one of his three defeats this season, so

Watkins’ absence can shine a greater light to the rest of the young stars of sport, such as the Notre Dame Guard Hannah Hidalgo, who is already two-time all-American of the first team in the second year. The third Irish struggle against the third regional regional finals against Texas and the second striker Madison Booker, another All-American, are emerging. In the meantime, the top seeds suda in the 6-foot 7 junior center Lauren Betts has its own all-American. Do not forget to defend the national champion South Carolina, to which a dominant unique star is missing, but one of the most widespread coaches in the game in Dawn Staley with two titles in the past three years.

It is also possible that the Trojans, if USC can enforce and advance without their best player, could be even more convincing as a team if they try to overcome adversity.

“Of course I feel a lot of emotions, but the biggest is proud,” said USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb after the victory on Monday against the state Mississippi, with the loss of Watkins about the excitement of progress. “What a performance of this group. If you throw a few talented people into a team, it won’t be a team until you work through some things. I always thought all year round that we with a team where we are with a team where we are moistening with Juju, and you with a person who lies up on her, and you, if you deal with the team, and you have you with a person with a person, and They have measured them with them and they have together with them and they have to do with themselves and how they have to take care of them.

USC opens on Saturday in the Sweet 16 in Spokane, Washington, against the fifth state of Kansas, who, in the extension of Kentucky, annoyed the fourth seed, led by eight 3-converter by striker Temira Poindexter. If the Trojans win there, they would probably compete against Uconn to the final Four on Monday evening, in which the most likely expected matchup of the weekend.

Greg Auman is an NFL reporter for Fox Sports. He previously spent a decade to cover them Leader For the Tampa Bay Times and the athletes. You can follow him on Twitter @Gregauman.

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