Spokan, Washington – Moments after Sweet 16 won on Saturday at Kansas State, USC players received a special call to faceime. Juju Watkins, the star and the heartbeat in their team, called in the Treasury, where her teammates celebrated the big victory, as they operated them after USC got eight consecutive sidewalks for the first time since 1982-1984.
Watskins, who is responsible for activating the women’s basketball program at the University of Southern California, after years of stillness, had to watch the game from Los Angeles. The national candidate for the front year maintained the ACL tear at the end of the season in the NCAA championship match in the second round of Troy against Mississippi, where she sent shocks all over the sports world.
The two -year -old Gottlieb, Rais, bombed the Watskins kisses over the phone. I asked, “Jojo did not get up,” “Jojo did not hurt?”
Watkins will again support Trojan horses from afar on Monday, as she faces the number 1 USC against Paige Bogers and 2 econn Huskies. This was the potential match that all fans revolve around as soon as the pillar dropped: a match match from Elite Eight last year and a confrontation between two of the brightest stars in the game. If there is anything, the fans were disappointed players, the players will have to face each other at that stage of the tournament and both of them could not play in Tamba.
This excitement remains, but when the teams take the stadium on Monday night, it will not be the same game that everyone was hoping – including Uconn.
Coach Geno Orima and Beirrez call more than the confrontation faced by USC and Watkins. Uconn has dealt with a large number of injuries at the end of the season over the past few years, including extravagance. After winning the national player for this year as a new student, most of her season sat in the second year due to the breaking of the plateau and tears in the articulated cartilage. The following summer torn it ACL and sat in the 2022-23 season.
It was not a surprise, then, that Auriemma and the main coach coach Chris Daily was among the first to arrive at Gottlieb in the hours that followed Watercins injury. The seeds continued to Watkins, and told reporters, “Our heart is separated from them.” “Everything you need, mentally, physically, if it needs to vent and ask questions.”
“They have gone through this, and I think you do not feel it unless you feel it before this way,” said Gotlalip.
Auriemma and Puckers have suffered directly with ascending and landing in the rehabilitation process, and what it takes to go out on the other side.
“If you are a competitor, if you are a person like Paige, a person like Juju, or some other children who have gone through this, they return better,” said Orima. “They return stronger, get more firm, more flexible, and more understanding that they can fight through things and overcome anything only.”
The seeds agreed.
“You should not be good like Juju if you don’t have a great engine, great work ethics, and it will attack this process just as the basketball attacks.” “Just as it was great in basketball, it will be great in this recovery process. With disappointment, but she knows that she will return better than ever, and this will be just a little setback for the great story you will get.”
As for the seeds, it helped her to drive to be great – a common quality that made her and stars Watskins in the first place – go back more than ever. In this tournament, 74 points were scored during the past two games-including 40 professions in the Sweet 16 race on Saturday-while it was outperforming the highest assistance to rotation in the country and shooting from 50-40-90 efficiency.
Now, with her days in the Uconn shirt at its end, Auriemma and Gottlieb said they see a star playing with a greater feeling of urgency because she is trying to win a championship, which will be the first since 2016.
“You are trying not to think about the risks, pressure, or reaching the four finals,” said Boycker. “It is clear that this exists, so you are trying not to think about the matter and to go out and play every game in the same way as the latter, such as it is the most important 40 minutes of your life … We just want the season to last as long as possible. So he left anything for chance, while giving it everything in this one to play for another 40 minutes for the mentality of our team.”
The last time that these teams met in late December, Trojan horses 72-70 won although 18 points. This time, both teams will look different: Watercins scored 25 points against Huskies and Uconn Azzi Fudd playing just eight minutes. This was her first match after adjusting her knee earlier that month, and the sixth match in general since its return from the ACL tear in November 2023. She said Sharpshooter-the top scorer of the leading team in the post-15.3-point season for each game-Sunday that she was not ready to play this game, but since it was found over the past few months, I felt like a “completely different player”. [with a] A completely different mindset. “
Trojan’s horses also discover its new reality, although they are clear that the goal has not changed: securing the first four final of the program since 1986 and the national championship since 1984. It is just the way to achieving these goals seems different now.
Usc will look more through Kiki Ervin’s top Kiki, adding the precious transport gate called Gottoplal is one of the best players in the country. And it does not have to do it alone. This team was always planning to rely heavily on its new chapter after graduating from beginners in the Ivy League team last season. Gottlieb said that the Trojan horses believed in their new students throughout the season. Now they are only asked to play a little larger roles than expected.
The way this group competed in the absence of Waterpings – Kennedy Smith and Afiri Hagws alone for 37 points against Kansas State – only for Gottlieb that they are “winners over everything else.”
The fact is that each team is only 40 minutes away from the four final. For this reason, Auriemma has long said that this is the most difficult game in the tournament.
Huskies team has experience alongside them with five players played in Elite Eight, including Puckers and Fudd; USC, without Watckens, has only two, including only one start in Raya Marshall. But the Trojan horses – who have heard everyone who calculated them as soon as Watercins decrease – may benefit from a lack of pressure on them.
Everyone who was able to deal with the pressure of this moment – whether they are poker, FUDD and the rest of the Huskies team are hungry for that dodging championship, or IRIAFEN, Smith and Hoel playing with both their injured teammates – the difference.
“Some players will rise to this occasion, some of which will shrink,” said Orima. “It is just the nature of that.”
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