SPOKANE, Washington — With or without JuJu Watkins, USC’s goal remains the same.
It might sound preposterous, the idea that the Trojans can still win a women’s basketball national championship without one of the most transcendent players in the game. One who contributed nearly a third of USC’s points, mind you, and gave the defense its bite.
But USC, the top seed in Spokane Regional 4, is convinced it can. After getting past a gritty Kansas State team on the strength of its freshmen Saturday night, who’s to tell the Trojans differently?
‘We still have the common goal of winning a national championship,’ Kennedy Smith, who tied her career high with 19 points, said after the the 67-61 win.
‘With Ju going down, obviously it was a bit of adversity that we had to face,’ Smith said. ‘But just having her in our presence — we talked to her before the game and she was still rooting us on, things of that nature — (we’re) just keeping her in our hearts and minds and playing for her as well as for each other.’
A team has two choices when it loses a player of Watkins’ magnitude: Come apart or dig deep and find a way to persevere. Given USC’s youth — three of the eight players who were on the floor Saturday were freshmen, including leading scorers Smith and Avery Howell (18 points), and a fourth was a sophomore — it would have been understandable if the Trojans had buckled.
It’s not even been a week since Watkins suffered the season-ending knee injury in the second-round game against Mississippi State. The NCAA tournament is still trying to come to grips with her absence. How could USC not also be feeling adrift?
And yet they’re not. Not yet, anyway.
When the Trojans left their team hotel for the game, every player was wearing a T-shirt with Watkins’ face and signature bun on it. They had a JuJu Funko Pop on the bench. They talked with her before the game and FaceTimed her from the jubilant locker room after.
‘We’re just trying to keep her spirit with us,’ USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. ‘She’s just such an incredible young person, and I think the way the team has responded says a lot about them, but also a lot about her and the true amount of chemistry that they have with each other.’
If Watkins believes the Trojans can win without her, then how can the Trojans not?
It was not an easy win, by any means. USC was scrapping for buckets all night and had to make free throws down the stretch. Kiki Iriafen wasn’t a factor offensively, but her defense was critical, never more so than when she grabbed a critical rebound with 32 seconds left.
There’s no one like Watkins, and no one can make up for her absence. But they can all raise their individual games.
In addition to tying her season high in points, Howell had four steals, doubling her previous best, and matched her season-best with eight rebounds.
‘I don’t think I’m necessarily trying to do exactly what she does because I don’t think anyone can really replicate what she does for our team,’ Howell said. ‘But I’m trying to kind of fill in at least that competitive mindset, that dog mentality that I think she has.’
It gets harder from here, however. USC now plays UConn in what had been the most anticipated matchup of the entire tournament. The decisive ‘Paige vs. JuJu’ game after UConn beat USC in last year’s Elite Eight and the Trojans beat the Huskies in December.
Instead, it will be up to Watkins’ teammates to try and derail Paige Bueckers and the Huskies.
‘We have her in our thoughts and we’re supporting her from here and we’re taking her competitive nature onto the court with us every single time we step there. We know that she’s back home supporting us, having a watch party, doing everything she can to give us that good JuJu, you could say,’ Howell said, breaking out in laughter at her own joke.
‘They’re a great team, so it’s going to be a tough game,’ Howell said a few minutes later. ‘We’re going to enjoy this one right now, but then it’s back to business.’
Watkins wouldn’t have it any other way.