The USC women's basketball team received devastating news late on Monday night as it was announced that star guard Juju Watkins had suffered a torn ACL in the NCAA Tournament and would require surgery. This meant that not only was she out for the remainder of March Madness, but she will miss most if not all of next season as well.
This was a devastating blow to the Trojans, but fortunately, the team has another star in Kiki Iriafen and plenty of young talent in Avery Howell, Kennedy Smith and Kayleigh Heckel. Still, the road to the Final Four will still be incredibly difficult for USC now.
Spokane Region 4 is loaded, and the next two games, should the Trojans win on Saturday, will be nothing short of a dog fight.
USC has difficult road to Final Four without Juju Watkins
The Trojans will take on No. 5 seed Kansas State in the Sweet 16 on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. ET at Spokane Arena in Spokane, Washington. Kansas State is coming off of a triumphant victory against No. 4 seed Kentucky in the Round of 32, winning in overtime thanks to a trio of stars in Ayoka Lee, Serena Sundell and Temira Poindexter.
That three-headed attack will be difficult for USC to stop, especially if Lee can neutralize Iriafen for portions of the game. She has not looked 100-percent healthy since coming back from a late-season foot injury, but she has had time to rest this week and could pose a major threat to the Trojans.
However, USC is still the favorite in this game and should be able to pull out a victory. If they do, they'll have the winner of No. 3 seed Oklahoma and No. 2 seed UConn awaiting them in the Elite 8.
Oklahoma is paced by All-American Raegan Beers, whereas UConn is led by a myriad of stars like Paige Bueckers, Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd. Both programs were ranked in the top 12 of the last Associated Press poll, so neither will be pushovers with a trip to the Final Four on the line.
In all likelihood, the Huskies will pull that game out and be a tough matchup for the Trojans in the Elite 8, but USC showed that their whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. They still have a chance to make a deep run, but without Juju Watkins, things may get tricky against the top teams in the tournament.