A lot has been honored on Juju Watkins from the beginning – from the moment when it was on the USC campus, it was the one that would return the program to the top of the mountain. This season, the player who was carrying the stars in the total basketball of women was in the aftermath of Caitlin Clark.
It was a lot of weight on the shoulders of anyone, but she dealt with it well. It flourished under this responsibility and flourished in the spotlight.
But at the end of last week, the largest star in women’s basketball was transferred after collapsing to the stadium with ACL tears at the end of the season. Her absence has left the USC fans stunned and the world’s total basketball world.
Some kind words of Jojo Watkins 🥹 pic.twitter.com/8symkuoucu
– Espnw (ESPNW) March 25, 2025
Salt in the wound? Commercial ads that include Watercins will continue to play during the NCAA championship. She is the largest individual star in the women’s college hoops at the present time, where she drew a red carpet -like turnout in her games at the Galen Center. This reception had flourished with another trip or a national championship, such as the indisputable Hollywood story.
While prayers on Los Angeles fell to recover Watercins, the questions have erupted: What now? from now?
It is a fair question. And basketball for women full of abstinence was repeatedly requested after last season, when he left Clark to Wnba. Will its hordes of fans and millions of viewers who recorded records watching their play in Iowa in the college season 2024-25?
No one expects this season championship to match the scenes of the record number of last season, but progress cannot be measured in public gains to another. Although no one expected the numbers to reach Clark House’s temperature before a season, the trend continues in one direction: up.
The first two tour of the tournament was not distinguished by any Cinderella, there are no main offspring, not Clark. They shed light on the drama that some believed to be necessary to attract viewers. However, the numbers do not lie-as the classifications of the first two rounds ranked second in the history of the tournament, reaching 43 percent in 2023, which now stands the third best year in the history of the tournament.
It was also a general, like Clark, the game still showed momentum in its wake. With the absence of Watskins on the rest of this tournament, as much as it will wave on the horizon, there is no reason to believe that sport is not strong enough to follow.
Because this question is not new.
Many people forget that before Clark captivated the country, Paige Bokerz was doing the same. Uconn star as a new student, won the national player for this year in 2021 and became an early lover of the name of the era of photos and stability. After that, ACL torn it and missed a full season, leaving questions about how to bear the sport without filling the new squares that fill the squares.
In the absence of extravagance, Clark and Ginel Reese appeared, agreeing on this void to bring more attention to the game and push the sport to higher horizons, and its peak in one of the most epic confrontation in the history of the championship. Last season, he led the unacceptable South Carolina campaign, coach Downton Stallie, who is among the most influential figures in sports. Gamecocks was tested by the wonderful Clark screens, drawing classifications for viewing that dwarfed even high standards for 2023.
When the seeds were abroad, Clark Warris answered. The seeds did the same after Sabrina Ainsko in Oregon went to WNBA. The fans were similarly skeptical about the lack of power of the stars when Maya Moore graduated from Uconn.
The women’s game has proven again and again – especially in these past few seasons – that it will produce. Stars will appear and capture basketball fans.
Perhaps the answer was not as it was a week ago, when the best player in the country was leading a program again with a national follower and immediate confession on a journey to watch.
Similar to Clark, Moore and others before them, the coaches were very annoyed in an attempt to prevent them but appreciated what they did in the game. Sometimes, it is easier to see growth from the inside.
If there is a coach who can attest to the value of players like Watskins and their impact on this sport, it is the Jino Orima of Uconn. He saw more phenomena closely to anyone else, and many who have become very loved can be referred to by their first names (or first letters) alone: So, D, Maya, Steio.
When the ESPN broadcast its coverage on Monday of the Uconn victory in the second round after Puccers scored 34 points, Auriemma Courtside sat at Stourrs for an interview. He was asked to answer quickly so that the broadcast can stir to the USC-Mississippi state that begins on the western coast.
“Oh, man, go away from me now, let’s get to it. I want to watch a play for her,” Urima said with a smile. “Here comes Juju. Give me some Juju! … I have finished for you, Juju, take over!”
Jino is the countdown to broadcasting, then threw it to Jojo, telling her about “acquisition” >>>> https://t.co/ermnjnrp5d pic.twitter.com/a2sto3eh2a
Tylerdeluca March 25, 2025
Coaches respect the great players. Game respecting game. (If only the latter has some mercy for the two knees.)
So what next? From now?
This is what will decide the next two weeks. But if the past tells us anything, the women’s championship will be presented. The elite talent is still in the game. Each seed No. 1 (UCLA, South Carolina, USC and Texas), 2 seeds (Uconn, NC State, Duke and TCU and 3 seeds (Notremam, LSU, North Carolina and Oklahoma). Sights are trained on services, and as the previous championships taught us, ordinary viewers will become new fans of the best players in the game. Hana Hidalgo of Notremam, LSU of Flau’jae Johnson and Ucla of Lauren Betts were perfect throughout the season, and new young players are ready to surprise us.
In Spokan and Birmingham, the show continues. The net will be cut. The new stars will be manufactured and directed, and the most familiar stars will carry a heavier load.
Usc is less than Watkins is not the same as it was before, and the Watsenz Championship is lower. But the best testimony to the greatness and power of the stars is that even in its absence, the sport that helps in its construction will continue to grow.
(Photo: Justin Castleline / Getty Emose)