What will USC be without JuJu Watkins? Trojans ready to find out

SPOKANE, Wash. — Thirty six hours after JuJu Watkins’ right knee buckled beneath her and USC’s season changed in the blink of an eye, Lindsay Gottlieb gathered her team for its first practice since its star sophomore went down.

It was a critical moment for USC and its coach. Emotions were still raw. Hearts were still heavy. But while the rest of the basketball world was busy writing off the Trojans, Gottlieb wanted her team to know one thing hadn’t changed in the wake of Watkins’ injury.

“We’ve had a lot of emotions, but none of them are doubt,” Gottlieb said. “The prevailing feeling is that we can still do something together. That’s what JuJu wants us to do. There’s a lot of belief with this team.”

That belief hasn’t wavered even as the path forward without Watkins looks much different for the Trojans, who will face Kansas State on Saturday night in the Sweet 16. But no one, at USC or elsewhere, is under the impression that the Trojans can simply plug someone in place of one of college basketball’s brightest stars either.

“None of us can replace JuJu,” USC forward Kiki Iriafen said. “Nobody can replace JuJu.”

But the rest of the season now hinges entirely on how USC adjusts to her absence. And while Gottlieb and her players insist they don’t feel that pressure, plenty of other tournament teams have been swallowed up by it before.

“Anytime you try to make up for it, it usually backfires,” said Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma, who’s a close friend of Gottlieb.

Auriemma was one of the first to text Gottlieb after the injury on Monday night. Asked Friday about the challenges of regrouping in the wake of an injury, the Connecticut coach harkened back Friday to the Huskies’ 1997 tournament run, when star freshman Shea Ralph tore her ACL on a breakaway layup. The team was devastated at the time. Players wrote Ralph’s name on their shoes to honor her. The tone, it turns out, overtook the rest of their run.

“It was like someone had passed away,” Auriemma said, “and we lost a game we probably shouldn’t have lost.”

USC forward Kiki Iriafen celebrates with teammates after hitting a tough shot against Mississippi State on March 24.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

There was no such sentiment at USC this week. Iriafen wouldn’t allow it to be so. The perpetually sunny senior forward was key in keeping the team’s energy up against Mississippi State, all while scoring a season-high 36 points, and she has tried to maintain that same attitude moving through this week.

Her contributions will go much further than that on Saturday. Presumably no one will be more important in carrying the scoring load going forward than the Trojans’ third-team All-American. Though, she doesn’t necessarily look at it that way.

“We all have the same sense of doing your role, but maybe doing it a lot more efficiently, doing that extra thing because we do have a lot to pick up,” Iriafen said. “This isn’t the time or the place for me to try and be like, OK, now you’re going to know me. That’s not what I’m here to do. That’s not what I’m here for.”

The truth is no one really knows what the Trojans will look like without Watkins. Including Kansas State, their Sweet 16 opponent.

“There’s not many clips out there with her not on the floor,” Kansas State coach Jeff Mittie said. “That’s been a real challenge. There’s maybe 100 total.”

Iriafen, who Mittie called “a mismatch problem in every area of the floor”, has been a primary focus of Kansas State’s game-planning. But if the Trojans intend to move onto the Elite Eight, they’ll likely need a strong showing out of their trio of freshmen guards — Avery Howell, Kayleigh Heckel and Kennedy Smith — all of whom are more than capable of getting hot from three-point range.

Slowing down Kansas State’s star player will also be paramount. Ayoka Lee, who averages 15.6 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, has battled through injuries this season. But the Wildcats are 17-1 whenever the 6-6 forward is in the lineup.

USC won’t have that same luxury Saturday. But Gottlieb has spent all season telling her players how important their roles are. That part doesn’t need to change. Even without Watkins leading the way.

“We just need to be the best versions of ourselves,” Gottlieb said, “and we need to do that together in order to have success. And I don’t think any one person will try to do more than what we know they’re capable of, but I also think they’re capable of a lot, and we’re capable of enormity when we do it together.”