- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 399,200
- Reaction score
- 43
Southern Cal women’s basketball star JuJu Watkins suffered a season-ending knee injury on Monday against Mississippi State during the NCAA tournament second-round game in Los Angeles, and it's led to criticism of the Bulldogs.
The injury occurred midway through the first quarter with Watkins, the nation’s fifth leading scorer and a two-time All-American, never returning to the game.
It sparked tempers and the rest of the game was chippy with at least one player needing to be separated from the handshake line. No. 1 seed USC (30-3) eliminated the No. 9 Bulldogs (22-12) with an easy 96-59 victory at the Galen Center to advance to the Sweet 16.
Here’s what we know about what Southern Cal said about the injury and Mississippi State's response.
Watkins was driving toward the Mississippi State basket with Bulldogs guard/forward Chandler Prater guarding her. Watkins started crumbling to the ground just as Prater made contact with her. Watkins’ right knee buckled.
Officials reviewed the play for a potential flagrant foul but assessed a common foul on Prater.
Bulldogs coach Sam Purcell opened his media availability after the game with comments about Watkins, who hadn’t been officially ruled out for the season at the time.
"First and foremost, my prayers and thoughts are with JuJu," he said. "Obviously, we're competitors. You never want to see that, especially what she means for women's basketball and a competitor. I'm hoping the best for her because she's special. Obviously, she's special for this team."
MSU was booed heavily by the USC crowd for large parts of the game.
Tempers escalated again in the second quarter when MSU guard Eniya Russell fouled USC guard Malia Samuels on a layup. Samuels fell to the ground and sustained an injury that stopped play. Officials also reviewed the play for a flagrant foul, but it was deemed a common foul. Samuels returned to the game two minutes later.
Then after the game, a video posted by a reporter on X, formerly Twitter, shows USC center/forward Rayah Marshall needing to be separated from the handshake line.
"We're a program of class," Purcell said. "And my prayers and thoughts as the leader of this program immediately in that opening statement are with JuJu. We don't play to hurt; we play to compete. That's just an unfortunate situation. There was no harm. And I hope us as a society, because social media can be ugly, that you understand the other lady on my team that was involved is a woman of class. She comes from a family, too, of loving parents. And I'm sure she is remorseful and obviously didn't want to have that happen situation."
According to USA TODAY, Prater was not made available to the media in the locker room after the game.
"Honestly, just very unfortunate," Mississippi State guard Jerkaila Jordan said. "You look forward to playing people like JuJu. I said it yesterday; JuJu is a generational talent. She's changed the game in so many ways at such a young age. I actually was looking forward to playing against her. She's one of the best of the best. Seeing her go down was really tough."
USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb was asked by a reporter about her role in keeping the game from getting overly chippy. She said USC "rallied being tougher and cleaner with our execution."
MORE: Why Sam Purcell won't let Mississippi State's blowout loss in March Madness be seen as failure
"The terminology I'll use, there's no punks in our locker room," Gottlieb said. "There was a comment, I think from one of their players after their last game, that, oh, the SEC and we're tough.
"We know that we have got no punks in our locker room, that we've got a team that's going to step up. But we also talked about doing that in the way that we do. Box out, meet your passes, make the right play, move the ball.
"As the game got chippier, all we needed to do was just stay being us. We weren't extra. We were just us. We are tough. We are physical. We are very clean in doing that."
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi State women's basketball criticized for JuJu Watkins injury
Continue reading...
The injury occurred midway through the first quarter with Watkins, the nation’s fifth leading scorer and a two-time All-American, never returning to the game.
It sparked tempers and the rest of the game was chippy with at least one player needing to be separated from the handshake line. No. 1 seed USC (30-3) eliminated the No. 9 Bulldogs (22-12) with an easy 96-59 victory at the Galen Center to advance to the Sweet 16.
Here’s what we know about what Southern Cal said about the injury and Mississippi State's response.
What Mississippi State, Sam Purcell said of the JuJu Watkins injury
Watkins was driving toward the Mississippi State basket with Bulldogs guard/forward Chandler Prater guarding her. Watkins started crumbling to the ground just as Prater made contact with her. Watkins’ right knee buckled.
Officials reviewed the play for a potential flagrant foul but assessed a common foul on Prater.
Bulldogs coach Sam Purcell opened his media availability after the game with comments about Watkins, who hadn’t been officially ruled out for the season at the time.
"First and foremost, my prayers and thoughts are with JuJu," he said. "Obviously, we're competitors. You never want to see that, especially what she means for women's basketball and a competitor. I'm hoping the best for her because she's special. Obviously, she's special for this team."
MSU was booed heavily by the USC crowd for large parts of the game.
Tempers escalated again in the second quarter when MSU guard Eniya Russell fouled USC guard Malia Samuels on a layup. Samuels fell to the ground and sustained an injury that stopped play. Officials also reviewed the play for a flagrant foul, but it was deemed a common foul. Samuels returned to the game two minutes later.
Then after the game, a video posted by a reporter on X, formerly Twitter, shows USC center/forward Rayah Marshall needing to be separated from the handshake line.
"We're a program of class," Purcell said. "And my prayers and thoughts as the leader of this program immediately in that opening statement are with JuJu. We don't play to hurt; we play to compete. That's just an unfortunate situation. There was no harm. And I hope us as a society, because social media can be ugly, that you understand the other lady on my team that was involved is a woman of class. She comes from a family, too, of loving parents. And I'm sure she is remorseful and obviously didn't want to have that happen situation."
According to USA TODAY, Prater was not made available to the media in the locker room after the game.
"Honestly, just very unfortunate," Mississippi State guard Jerkaila Jordan said. "You look forward to playing people like JuJu. I said it yesterday; JuJu is a generational talent. She's changed the game in so many ways at such a young age. I actually was looking forward to playing against her. She's one of the best of the best. Seeing her go down was really tough."
USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb: Trojans are not ‘punks’
USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb was asked by a reporter about her role in keeping the game from getting overly chippy. She said USC "rallied being tougher and cleaner with our execution."
MORE: Why Sam Purcell won't let Mississippi State's blowout loss in March Madness be seen as failure
"The terminology I'll use, there's no punks in our locker room," Gottlieb said. "There was a comment, I think from one of their players after their last game, that, oh, the SEC and we're tough.
"We know that we have got no punks in our locker room, that we've got a team that's going to step up. But we also talked about doing that in the way that we do. Box out, meet your passes, make the right play, move the ball.
"As the game got chippier, all we needed to do was just stay being us. We weren't extra. We were just us. We are tough. We are physical. We are very clean in doing that."
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi State women's basketball criticized for JuJu Watkins injury
Continue reading...
