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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — It’s a group no one wants to be a part of and a text they’d rather never be in a position to receive.
Hey. It sucks, I’m sorry it happened, but you’ll come back better, faster, stronger. I know. I’ve been there.
The latest bunch were delivered to JuJu Watkins, the Southern Cal sophomore poised to take over the NCAA tournament before she sustained an ACL tear in the second round. A season ago, they were sent to Texas point guard Rori Harmon.
“Obviously, I hate that for her,” Harmon said on Friday from the Birmingham regional site. “Absolutely don't like that. We're not even, like, that close, but I've said before, this is a basketball player, [a] women's basketball player. We all stick together. I just wish she has the best recovery.”
UConn guard Azzi Fudd tore her ACL and meniscus around the same time as Harmon. She initially tore her right ACL in 2019 as a high schooler and played her first nearly full healthy season this year.
"I was nauseous hearing the news for her," Fudd said from the Spokane regional, where the Huskies could meet USC in the Elite Eight. "You don't want to see anyone go through it, but she's going to come back stronger."
Two years ago this month, the messages poured in for Notre Dame point guard Olivia Miles and months before that for UConn point guard Paige Buckers. In between, messages bounced around the country to dozens more in a sport in which ACL injuries are prevalent.
"We empathize for her, we've been there, and we know how much it sucks," Bueckers said. "But you don't get to be as good as JuJu if you don't have a great motor, a great work ethic, and she's going to attack this process just as she's attacked basketball. And just as she's great at basketball, she's going to be great at this recovery process."
Harmon, Miles, Fudd and Bueckers are the most notable and accomplished women’s basketball names to miss a season or more with an ACL injury. All will take the court in the Sweet 16 on Saturday, a visible representation that the path back for Watkins is long, but proven.
“My heart breaks for anyone that goes through that,” said Miles, who tore her ACL in the 2023 regular season finale. “I wouldn't wish that injury on my worst enemy.”
Miles helmed a Fighting Irish program favored to reach the Final Four before she sustained the injury. She watched as Notre Dame battled to a Sweet 16 berth, fell short against Maryland, and carried on the following season with their triple-double standout watching from the bench. The 5-foot-10 WNBA prospect returned in the fall and has the No. 3-seeded Irish back in contention for a national title.
Her advice to Watkins, who was named a finalist for player of the year awards the morning after her injury, and any other player who unwillingly joins the club is to take whatever rehab time feels correct. The minimum timeline is about nine months, but it often takes up to a full calendar year to fully return to basketball.
“There are a lot of external factors, a lot of people who would like to see you back earlier than you may be able to, and you may rush your recovery,” Miles said. “But at the end of the day this injury takes time, and it really takes you listening to your body and what it needs.”
Fudd wore a bracelet that said "purpose" to remind her to avoid shortcuts. Bueckers described the first week after initially sustaining the injury as "devastation, a sense of just hurt, disappointment, a 'Why me?' sort of mentality." A lot of those questions, she said, go unanswered and eventually, after surgery, the philosophy or faith that "everything happens for a reason" kicks in instead.
Harmon was building a player of the year résumé with Texas a Final Four contender when she went down in a December 2023 practice. It was 12 games into the season and at first, she didn’t want to see anything or go to practice.
“Eventually you get out of your own funk and stop being so selfish and into yourself,” Harmon said. "And you think about, ‘I’m still on the team. I’m still a player on the team. I just may not be playing. They still have a whole season [and] I have to be there.’”
Harmon channeled her efforts into rehab as well as guiding freshman forward Madison Booker into the starting point guard role and serving as a bench coach.
“I've seen one other kid in my career work as hard as she did,” Texas head coach Vic Schaefer said. “This year’s schedule, I put it off a week. We didn’t open the first week. We opened the second week because I was trying to give Rori an extra week to get ready.”
The veteran head coach scheduled a closed-door scrimmage with Watkins’ USC program in October. Harmon was ready to go for it 10 months after sustaining the injury. Schaefer said she could have gone at five months, but there was “no point in rushing her.”
“We talked [the other day] about how she was a step slow, which was still a step faster than just about everybody else on the floor,” Schaefer said. “There was a couple of guards that USC had that gave her a little problem, but we laughed about that because, you know, you look at her play now, and you are amazed.”
Harmon, a finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Award for the nation’s best point guard alongside Miles and Bueckers, said looking back the physical aspect was a lot easier than the mental aspect of a return.
“They wouldn't release me if I wasn't physically good,” Harmon said. “But it's not like they help you with your mental as much as your physical.”
South Carolina's Dawn Staley, Notre Dame's Niele Ivey and UConn's Geno Auriemma were among the head coaches who said they reached out to the USC program and head coach Lindsay Gottlieb in the midst of the injury.
"It's just one of those unfortunate things that happens," Auriemma said. "And I feel terrible for JuJu personally, knowing the players that I've had that have had to go through that, how much it means to them, what they're missing for the whole year that they're out, and for Lindsay, for [Watkins'] teammates."
USC Trojans guard JuJu Watkins suffered her knee injury during the first quarter of her team's win over Mississippi State on March 24. (Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images)
IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters
Auriemma and Staley, the heads of the era's two powerhouse programs, both noted the effect it has on the tournament in terms of competition and star power.
"JuJu is loved by all of us," Staley said. "JuJu is raising and lifting our game up with how she plays, with cornering the market when it comes to NIL deals. I mean, she's a business herself, and to see part of that not a part of our NCAA tournament, something is missing. There's a big void."
It is the third consecutive tournament that has been massively impacted by an ACL injury. They are so prevalent in the women’s game that often multiple members of a team have gone through it. Harmon credits Shaylee Gonzales, a graduate transfer on last year’s roster, with helping her through the process. Gonzales showed up to Harmon’s rehab appointments and served as a key support system for the mental aspect of a return to elite competition, where fears of a potential re-injury can play on the mind.
“I know freshly for JuJu, she’s probably going through that moment where it’s like, ‘Why me? Why me?’” Harmon said. “Which we all did, but she understands it’s going to get better. It has to get better. I know us athletes are so competitive, and so that’s how we attack our rehab, and that’s why you see all the ones that have been through their injuries, they’re here. They’re here in this tournament and they’re winning. And they’re doing great.”
Harmon, Booker and Schaefer all talk about how the injury and Harmon’s approach to leading her team during rehab made the Longhorns stronger. He is still amazed at Harmon’s movement, explosiveness, torque and change of direction. She’s tasked with leading the defense’s press, a challenge she welcomes especially ahead of facing Tennessee in the Sweet 16. The ACL injury feels like forever ago now, Harmon said, with one visible exception.
She’s excited to soon escape the knee brace she’s worn this season, a final message that coming back strong from a season-ending injury is merely a matter of time.
Continue reading...
Hey. It sucks, I’m sorry it happened, but you’ll come back better, faster, stronger. I know. I’ve been there.
The latest bunch were delivered to JuJu Watkins, the Southern Cal sophomore poised to take over the NCAA tournament before she sustained an ACL tear in the second round. A season ago, they were sent to Texas point guard Rori Harmon.
“Obviously, I hate that for her,” Harmon said on Friday from the Birmingham regional site. “Absolutely don't like that. We're not even, like, that close, but I've said before, this is a basketball player, [a] women's basketball player. We all stick together. I just wish she has the best recovery.”
UConn guard Azzi Fudd tore her ACL and meniscus around the same time as Harmon. She initially tore her right ACL in 2019 as a high schooler and played her first nearly full healthy season this year.
"I was nauseous hearing the news for her," Fudd said from the Spokane regional, where the Huskies could meet USC in the Elite Eight. "You don't want to see anyone go through it, but she's going to come back stronger."
Two years ago this month, the messages poured in for Notre Dame point guard Olivia Miles and months before that for UConn point guard Paige Buckers. In between, messages bounced around the country to dozens more in a sport in which ACL injuries are prevalent.
"We empathize for her, we've been there, and we know how much it sucks," Bueckers said. "But you don't get to be as good as JuJu if you don't have a great motor, a great work ethic, and she's going to attack this process just as she's attacked basketball. And just as she's great at basketball, she's going to be great at this recovery process."
Harmon, Miles, Fudd and Bueckers are the most notable and accomplished women’s basketball names to miss a season or more with an ACL injury. All will take the court in the Sweet 16 on Saturday, a visible representation that the path back for Watkins is long, but proven.
“My heart breaks for anyone that goes through that,” said Miles, who tore her ACL in the 2023 regular season finale. “I wouldn't wish that injury on my worst enemy.”
Miles helmed a Fighting Irish program favored to reach the Final Four before she sustained the injury. She watched as Notre Dame battled to a Sweet 16 berth, fell short against Maryland, and carried on the following season with their triple-double standout watching from the bench. The 5-foot-10 WNBA prospect returned in the fall and has the No. 3-seeded Irish back in contention for a national title.
Her advice to Watkins, who was named a finalist for player of the year awards the morning after her injury, and any other player who unwillingly joins the club is to take whatever rehab time feels correct. The minimum timeline is about nine months, but it often takes up to a full calendar year to fully return to basketball.
“There are a lot of external factors, a lot of people who would like to see you back earlier than you may be able to, and you may rush your recovery,” Miles said. “But at the end of the day this injury takes time, and it really takes you listening to your body and what it needs.”
Fudd wore a bracelet that said "purpose" to remind her to avoid shortcuts. Bueckers described the first week after initially sustaining the injury as "devastation, a sense of just hurt, disappointment, a 'Why me?' sort of mentality." A lot of those questions, she said, go unanswered and eventually, after surgery, the philosophy or faith that "everything happens for a reason" kicks in instead.
Harmon was building a player of the year résumé with Texas a Final Four contender when she went down in a December 2023 practice. It was 12 games into the season and at first, she didn’t want to see anything or go to practice.
“Eventually you get out of your own funk and stop being so selfish and into yourself,” Harmon said. "And you think about, ‘I’m still on the team. I’m still a player on the team. I just may not be playing. They still have a whole season [and] I have to be there.’”
Harmon channeled her efforts into rehab as well as guiding freshman forward Madison Booker into the starting point guard role and serving as a bench coach.
“I've seen one other kid in my career work as hard as she did,” Texas head coach Vic Schaefer said. “This year’s schedule, I put it off a week. We didn’t open the first week. We opened the second week because I was trying to give Rori an extra week to get ready.”
The veteran head coach scheduled a closed-door scrimmage with Watkins’ USC program in October. Harmon was ready to go for it 10 months after sustaining the injury. Schaefer said she could have gone at five months, but there was “no point in rushing her.”
“We talked [the other day] about how she was a step slow, which was still a step faster than just about everybody else on the floor,” Schaefer said. “There was a couple of guards that USC had that gave her a little problem, but we laughed about that because, you know, you look at her play now, and you are amazed.”
Harmon, a finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Award for the nation’s best point guard alongside Miles and Bueckers, said looking back the physical aspect was a lot easier than the mental aspect of a return.
“They wouldn't release me if I wasn't physically good,” Harmon said. “But it's not like they help you with your mental as much as your physical.”
South Carolina's Dawn Staley, Notre Dame's Niele Ivey and UConn's Geno Auriemma were among the head coaches who said they reached out to the USC program and head coach Lindsay Gottlieb in the midst of the injury.
"It's just one of those unfortunate things that happens," Auriemma said. "And I feel terrible for JuJu personally, knowing the players that I've had that have had to go through that, how much it means to them, what they're missing for the whole year that they're out, and for Lindsay, for [Watkins'] teammates."
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USC Trojans guard JuJu Watkins suffered her knee injury during the first quarter of her team's win over Mississippi State on March 24. (Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images)
IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters
Auriemma and Staley, the heads of the era's two powerhouse programs, both noted the effect it has on the tournament in terms of competition and star power.
"JuJu is loved by all of us," Staley said. "JuJu is raising and lifting our game up with how she plays, with cornering the market when it comes to NIL deals. I mean, she's a business herself, and to see part of that not a part of our NCAA tournament, something is missing. There's a big void."
It is the third consecutive tournament that has been massively impacted by an ACL injury. They are so prevalent in the women’s game that often multiple members of a team have gone through it. Harmon credits Shaylee Gonzales, a graduate transfer on last year’s roster, with helping her through the process. Gonzales showed up to Harmon’s rehab appointments and served as a key support system for the mental aspect of a return to elite competition, where fears of a potential re-injury can play on the mind.
“I know freshly for JuJu, she’s probably going through that moment where it’s like, ‘Why me? Why me?’” Harmon said. “Which we all did, but she understands it’s going to get better. It has to get better. I know us athletes are so competitive, and so that’s how we attack our rehab, and that’s why you see all the ones that have been through their injuries, they’re here. They’re here in this tournament and they’re winning. And they’re doing great.”
Harmon, Booker and Schaefer all talk about how the injury and Harmon’s approach to leading her team during rehab made the Longhorns stronger. He is still amazed at Harmon’s movement, explosiveness, torque and change of direction. She’s tasked with leading the defense’s press, a challenge she welcomes especially ahead of facing Tennessee in the Sweet 16. The ACL injury feels like forever ago now, Harmon said, with one visible exception.
She’s excited to soon escape the knee brace she’s worn this season, a final message that coming back strong from a season-ending injury is merely a matter of time.
Continue reading...
