Lindsay Gottlieb raves about USC mindset since JuJu Watkins injury

USC is Elite Eight bound — without Juju Watkins. The Trojans defeated Kansas State 67-61 on Saturday night, playing their first full game after their star player tore her ACL in the Round of 32.

This came after USC boat raced the Mississippi State Bulldogs during the same game where Watkins went down. They led by as many as 46 points without their superstar, and managed to overcome an early defecit to fend off the Wildcats in the Sweet 16. Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb raved about her team’s performances while facing such unexpected adversity.

“Really pleased, but not surprised,” Gottlieb said after the Kansas State win. “I knew we would come out and compete. I do think we have had this really good balance. … I think that we felt going into this game, like, this is a game we have to attack and prepare for with the intent to win.

“We knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I thought when it got hard out there — and Kansas State is a really good team who poses a lot of problems, I thought you saw the team really stick together and compete, just from a technical standpoint, but we had to find different ways. They really tried to take away the paint and take away Kiki [Iriafen], and other people had to respond, and I thought we did enough.”

Of course, USC isn’t the first team in history to lose its star player during the most crucial moments of the year. Gottlieb recalled when Shea Ralph, current Vanderbilt coach, tore her ACL when she was playing for Geno Auriemma at UConn in 1997 during the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Just named Big East Freshman of the Year at the time, losing Ralph was akin to someone on the team passing away, Auriemma said. They have a hard time functioning as a unit after that.

UConn, who was undefeated at the time, would go on lose to Pat Summitt and Tennessee in the Elite Eight. Gottlieb is hoping history won’t repeat itself on Monady night with the Final Four on the line.

USC never took its foot off the gas when Watkins after down with injury against Mississippi State in the Round of 32. And after having a few days before the Sweet 16 matchup to prepare themselves without Watkins, they found a way to win against Kansas State in a tight, back and forth game.

“I’m really proud of this team,” Gottlieb continued. “I think any Sweet 16 win when you get to the Elite Eight, whether you’re a 1 seed, whether you have your entire team or not, is a big deal. These are really competitive games. And so I’m proud of this game and the way we won it, and then we’ll obviously shift very quickly to try and put together the best game plan to try to win a game on Monday night.”

Ironically, the Trojans will be taking on Geno Auriemma and the UConn Huskies in the Elite Eight on Monday. Tip-off is set for 9 p.m. ET and will air live on ESPN.