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Lindsay Gottlieb defends Mississippi State from attacks following JuJu Watkins injury

Grant Grubbs Profile Pictureby:Grant Grubbs•03/28/25•

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USC Trojans head coach Lindsay Gottlieb greets guard JuJu Watkins (12) as she comes out of the game in the fourth quarter of an NCAA Tournament game against the UNC Greensboro Spartans at Galen Center
USC Trojans head coach Lindsay Gottlieb greets guard JuJu Watkins (12) as she comes out of the game in the fourth quarter of an NCAA Tournament game against the UNC Greensboro Spartans at Galen Center. (Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images)

USC star JuJu Watkins suffered a torn ACL in the Trojans’ 96-59 blowout win over Mississippi State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. In the week following the game, Mississippi State’s Chandler Prater, who was the player called for the foul on the play of Watkins’ injury, received hateful comments on her Instagram.

Some of those comments claimed Prater had injured Watkins on purpose. It was a physical showdown between the two teams and they had to be separated during the postgame handshake line. In-game differences aside, USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb disavowed any hatred being directed toward Mississippi State’s players or staff.

“There was nothing to me that looked like it had any intent to hurt her,” Gottlieb said on Friday. “I understand people being sad and hurt that she’s hurt, but nobody in our camp feels like there was any type of attack on her and would not support any type of online bullying or things of that nature. [Chandler Prater is] a young person that was playing basketball too, and I’m sure did not want any part of a negative situation that it turned out to be.”

Watkins’ injury is a major blow to USC’s national championship hopes. She was averaging 23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game this season, and is one of the most popular players in women’s college basketball.

ESPN’s Rebecca Lobo projected Watkins’ recovery to be a 12-month process, which would keep sidelined next season as well. After Mississippi State’s loss to USC, Bulldogs head coach Sam Purcell preemptively defended his players.

“We don’t play to hurt, we play to compete and that’s just an unfortunate situation,” Purcell said. “There was no harm, and I hope us as a society, I know social media can be ugly, that you understand that the other lady that was involved that’s on my team is a woman of class.

“She’s comes from a family too of loving parents, I’m sure she is remorseful and obviously didn’t want to have that happen. I hope that we understand as a society that it was a thoughtful apology and don’t take it further than it needs to. On behalf of the Bulldogs, again, we’re praying for her recovery because she’s the ultimate competitor and we want to see her back on that court.”

On Saturday, USC will play its first game in the NCAA Tournament without JuJu Watkins. The Trojans will square off against 5-seed Kansas State at 8 p.m. ET. The game will air live on ESPN.