SI:AM | Plenty of Intrigue As Women’s Sweet 16 Is Set

JuJu Watkins’s injury gives UConn an easier than expected path to the Final Four.

Watkins’s (12) injury completely changes the outlook of the tournament. / Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I wonder if JuJu Watkins twisting her ankle in the first round had anything to do with her knee injury last night.

In today’s SI:AM:

😞 JuJu goes down
♟️ Queens Gambit
🏀 Re-seeding men’s field

Brutal break for USC

If you thought this year’s men’s NCAA tournament bracket was chalky, wait until you see what the women’s side looks like. All the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 seeds are still alive. What passes for an “upset” is the fact that there are three five-seeds that pulled off second-round upsets over four-seeds to advance to the second weekend. The first two rounds went mostly as expected, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the tournament won’t be compelling.

The biggest story line emerging from the second round is the devastating injury to USC Trojans star JuJu Watkins. The player of the year favorite was injured about five minutes into her team’s second-round game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Monday night in Los Angeles. She crumpled to the floor while attempting to drive to the rim and had to be carried off the court, unable to put any weight on her right leg. The team later announced that she had suffered a season-ending injury. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that it was a torn ACL.

USC went on to win handily even without Watkins, 96–59, as Stanford transfer Kiki Iriafen tied her career high for points in a regulation game with 36. But the injury clearly casts a pall over the rest of the Trojans’ tournament—a run that, without Watkins, could be much shorter than expected. In the long term, it raises questions about next season for USC, considering the timing of Watkins’s injury makes it exceedingly unlikely she’ll be ready to play her junior season.

One player who knows what it’s like to tear an ACL before her junior season is UConn Huskies guard Paige Bueckers, who’s poised to be the biggest beneficiary of Watkins’s injury. Bueckers was flawless in the Huskies’ blowout win over the South Dakota State Jackrabbits on Monday, scoring 34 points in 29 minutes in her final game at UConn’s Gampel Pavillion.

With the win, UConn advanced to its 31st consecutive Sweet 16, where it will face the No. 3 seed Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday. The selection committee gave the Huskies a tough path to the championship, awarding them a No. 2 seed despite being ranked third in the AP poll and first in the Her Hoop Stats advanced metrics. They were placed in the same region as USC, so when the bracket was released, fans immediately began salivating over a potential showdown between Watkins and Bueckers with a spot in the Final Four on the line. Watkins’s injury means that matchup won’t be as tantalizing if it comes to pass and gives UConn an unexpectedly easier path to the Final Four.

Another highly anticipated matchup will come to fruition, though. The two-seed Duke Blue Devils and three-seed North Carolina Tar Heels will meet on Friday afternoon in the first-ever March Madness matchup between the two programs. The only other NCAA tournament meeting between the two Tobacco Road rivals was when the men’s teams met in the 2022 Final Four in what ended up being coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final game.

Duke and UNC split the season series this year, with the Tar Heels winning in overtime in Chapel Hill on Jan. 9 and the Blue Devils winning the rematch in Durham on Feb. 27. A potential rubber match in the ACC championship game was thwarted when the NC State Wolfpack beat UNC in the semifinals.

Both teams were tested in their second-round games. Duke, following an 86–25 shellacking against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks in the first round, sweated out a 59–53 win over the 10-seed Oregon Ducks in the second round. UNC’s 58–47 win over the No. 6 seed West Virginia Mountaineers was also uglier than the Tar Heels would have liked. They shot just 36.4% from the floor and turned the ball over 17 times.

The other Sweet 16 games all have something worth paying attention to. The top overall seed UCLA Bruins will face an Ole Miss Rebels team that has made consistent progress year after year under coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin. The NC State Wolfpack’s quest to return to the Final Four faces a major roadblock in a matchup with the LSU Tigers and their elite offense. The No. 4 seed Maryland Terrapins survived a double-overtime thriller against the Alabama Crimson Tide on Monday and will face the defending champion South Carolina Gamecocks for an encore. The TCU Horned Frogs and Notre Dame Fighting Irish will square off in a meeting of two of the best guards in the nation (Hailey Van Lith and Hannah Hidalgo). The Texas Longhorns and Tennessee Volunteers, who already played a thriller in Austin in January, will have a rematch with bigger stakes. It’s going to be an outstanding weekend.

The new look Mets are on the cover of SI’s MLB preview. / Jeffery A. Salter/Sports Illustrated

The best of Sports Illustrated

• The Mets are on the cover of the latest issue of Sports Illustrated, with a cover story by Tom Verducci on how they managed to lure Juan Soto away from the rival Yankees.

• JuJu Watkins’s injury will put a damper on the rest of the month of March, Emma Baccellieri writes.

• Bryan Fischer re-seeded the 16 teams left standing in the men’s tournament.

• With the NFL draft a month away, here is Daniel Flick’s seventh mock draft of the season.

• Conor Orr believes the Giants’ decision to sign Jameis Winston isn’t a home run but could be just what the team needs as they try to figure out their quarterback situation.

• Jon Wertheim breaks down the stakes of an important lawsuit filed recently by the Professional Tennis Players Association.

• Jayson Tatum left Monday night’s game against the Kings with an ankle injury but it doesn’t sound terribly serious.

• Kings great Mike Bibby will be the new men’s basketball coach at Sacramento State.

The top five…

… things I saw last night:

5. The chaotic final play of the Hawaii–UC Davis baseball game. A Hawaii runner attempted to steal home in the bottom of the 13th inning and slid in safely, but the run would have counted even if he had been thrown out, because the pitcher was called for a balk.
4. Azzi Fudd’s slick reverse layup.
3. Connor Garland’s concentration to knock home a rebound for a game-tying goal for the Canucks. Vancouver went on to beat the Devils in overtime.
2. Devin Booker’s game-winner for the Suns against the Bucks.
1. Maryland’s lock-down defense to seal its win over Alabama.