Superstar guard JuJu Watkins’ season-ending knee injury looms large over Saturday’s Spokane Region 4 Sweet 16 matchup between No. 1 seed Southern California and No. 5 seed Kansas State.
USC (30-3) rallied after Watkins sustained the injury in Monday’s second-round 96-59 blowout of Mississippi State, led by Kiki Iriafen’s 36 points and nine rebounds.
The Trojans will need more huge performances like that to fill the void left by All-American sophomore Watkins (23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists per game).
“Everyone knows no one is replacing JuJu,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “She’s one of one. But I think they understand that, amongst everybody else, they have played significant roles, they have played important roles. We just need to be the best versions of ourselves, and we need to do that together in order to have success.”
Iriafen comes into Saturday’s matchup averaging 18.6 points and a team-high 8.5 rebounds per game. She is the only Trojan other than Watkins to average in double-figure points for the season. Freshmen Kennedy Smith and Avery Howell contribute 9.2 and 7.1 points per game.
Kansas State (28-7) has five players averaging 9.5 or more points per game, including 2022 All-American center Ayoka Lee.
The fifth-year senior returned from a month-long absence due to a foot injury to rejoin the Wildcats’ lineup for the NCAA Tournament. She produced a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double in the 85-41 rout of Fairfield in the first round, and 16 points with nine rebounds in an 80-79 overtime win over Kentucky.
“We are super excited to have her back. We’re simply a better team with her on the court and back at 100 percent,” Kansas State guard Serena Sundell said. “We all are confident we can beat anybody in the country, but we also kind of have that underdog vibe around our team where not a lot of people are expecting.”
Sundell is averaging 13.9 points per game, while Temira Poindexter — who scored 24 points in the defeat of Kentucky — is putting up 12.7 points per game.
No. 2 UConn vs. No. 3 Oklahoma
All-American guard Paige Bueckers headlines second seed UConn going into its Sweet 16 matchup on Saturday with No. 3 seed Oklahoma, but another Huskies perimeter player could be key to a national championship run.
Guard Azzi Fudd scored 27 and 17 points in UConn’s first two NCAA Tournament wins over Arkansas State and South Dakota State.
“Paige has been in this situation a lot, Azzi has not, so I’m sure she’s anxious to play in this environment in a game of this magnitude,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said.
“The only thing I worry about … when it’s their first real, real, real exposure to this when they haven’t played in a long time is they try so hard. They put so much into it. So if we can keep it kind of like the other games that we’ve played recently, I would think she’s going to play great.”
Fudd missed most of the previous two seasons with injuries, but she has returned to complement Bueckers’ team-leading 19.2 points per game with 13.4 of her own.
Fudd should have a key role for UConn (33-3) against an Oklahoma team with plenty of scoring ability.
The Sooners (27-7) average 85.4 points per game, fifth-most in the nation ahead of the Sweet 16. Oklahoma cruised past Florida Gulf Coast (81-58) and Iowa (96-62) in the tournament’s opening weekend behind a pair of double-doubles from forward Raegan Beers.
Beers is one of four Oklahoma scorers averaging in double figures heading into Saturday’s contest, as her 17.5 points and 9.3 rebounds per game lead the Sooners.
Leaning on weapons other than Beers, however, has been vital to Oklahoma’s run, said Sooners coach Jennie Baranczyk.
“We can’t be a one-hit wonder,” she said. “We can’t have where we’re just going to feed Raegan every possession of every game that we lose the rest of our movement. And we’ve had to grow through that and we’ve had to learn a lot.”
Guard Payton Verhulst, averaging 14.9 points per game, has dished 26 assists over the last five games while scoring at least 13 points in four. Oklahoma will try to leverage her versatility to keep UConn off-balance defensively.
–Field Level Media
