Women’s March Madness 2025: Inside the new USC-Uncenn Match

Spokane, Wash. – in moments after Saturday Sweet 16 Win over KANSAS STATE, USC Players received a special FaceTime call. Juju watkinsSuperStar and heart rhythm of his team, called in the dressing room, when her teammates celebrated their great victory and for the first time secured them for the first time in each other going out elite eight berths since 1982-84.

Watkins, responsible for the revitalization of the women’s USC basketball program after years of dormancy, had to watch Los Angeles. Front-Runner of the National Player of the Year maintained a Seasonal tears of ACL In the NCAA tournament game in the Trojan round against Mississippi State and send shock waves all over the sports world.

Gottlieb’s two -year -old daughter, Reese, threw her into Watkins on the phone. Confused asked, “Juju is injured?” “Gottlieb said to her daughter,” No, she’s still injured, but today AS is happy. “”

Watkins will support its Trojan horses from a distance on Monday again when the Seed 1 USC is facing Paige Bueckers and seed no. 2 Uconn Huskies. This was a potential match that every fan circled as soon as the holder dropped: the match of last year’s elite eight and the clearing between the two brightest stars in the game. If the fans were disappointed, both players would have to face themselves at this stage of the tournament and both could not play in Tampa.

This excitement remains, but if the teams take the court on Monday evening, it will not be the same game that everyone hoped – including Uconn.

The Geno Auriemma and Bueckers coach relate more than most of the USC and Watkins. Over the past few years, Uconn has been dealing with a lot of injuries to the end of the season, including Bueckers. After winning the national player of the year as a newcomer, for most of her season Sophomore sat a fracture of the tibial plateau and tears of meniscus. The following summer it torn ACL and sat the 2022-23 season.

So it was not surprising that Auriemma and associate of head coach Chris Dailey were among the first to address Gottlieb in lessons after watkins injury. Bueckers reached out to Watkins and told reporters, “Our heart breaks for her.” Offered “All she needs, mentally, physically, if she needs to vent, ask questions.”

“They have experienced it,” Gottlieb said, “and I think you don’t feel it if you felt that way before.”

Auriemma and Bueckers have experienced first -hand ascension and falls of the rehabilitation process and what is needed to come out on the other side.

“If you are a competitor, if you are someone like Paige, someone like Juju or some other children who have gone through it will return better,” Auriemma said. “They return stronger, more determined, more resistant and more understandable, that they can fight through things and overcome almost anything.”

Bueckers agreed.

“You won’t be as good as Juju if you don’t have a great engine, great work ethics, and she’ll attack this process when she attacked basketball,” she said. “And just as it is great in basketball, it will be great in this process of recovery. Disappointed for her, but I know that she will return better than ever, and that will be just a little failure to the great story he will have.”

For Bueckers, a unit to be great – shared quality, which made it and Watkins’ stars in the first place – helped bounce back stronger than ever. In this tournament, on Saturday, it gained 74 points in the last two games-including 40 career 40 in Sweet 16-a at the same time boasts the highest ratio of assistance in the country and shooting streams 50-40-90 efficiency.

And now that her days in Uconn’s jersey ended, Auriemma and Gottlieb said she sees a star playing with a greater sense of urgency when trying to win the championship, which would be the first program from 2016.

“You are trying not to think about bets or pressure or get to Final Four,” Bueckers said. “It is obvious that it is there, so you are trying not to think about it and just go out and play every game in the same way as it is your last, as if it is the most important 40 minutes of your life. … We just want the season to continue as long as possible.

Last time these teams met at the end of December Trojan horses won 72-70 Although blowing 18-point lead. This time both teams will look different: Watkins scored 25 points against Huskies and Uconn Guard Azzi advantage He played only eight minutes. It was her first game back after tuning her knee earlier that month and the sixth game overall since her ACL tears in November 2023. Sharpshooter-Duruh’s head shooter in Postseason to 15.3 points on the game Sunday that she was not ready to play this game on Sunday. Mind (SA), ”with a completely different player (with a completely different player (with a completely different player (with a completely different player (with a completely different player (with a completely different player (SA),” said a completely different mind on Sunday. “

Trojan

USC will look like to play more through seniors Kiki IriafenIts valuable addition to the portal portal, which Gottlieb calls one of the best players in the country. And she doesn’t have to do it herself. After the end of the Trio Starters Transfer Ivy League Transfer from last season, the team has always been seriously relying on its class of freshmen. Trojan horses believed in their freshmen all season, Gottlieb said; Now they are just asked to play a little more roles than expected.

The way the group competed in the absence of Watkins – Kennedy Smith and Avery Howell He joined for 37 points against Kansas – Gottlieb reiterated that “the winners are over everything else”.

The reality is that each team is just 40 minutes from Final Four. Therefore, Auriemma said for a long time that this was the most difficult game of the tournament.

Huskies have experience on their side with five players who played in elite eight, including Bueckers and Fudd; USC, without watkins, has only two, of which only one starter Rayah Marshall. But perhaps the Trojan horses – who heard all those who counted them as soon as Watkins dropped – benefits from insufficient pressure on them.

Anyone is able to handle the pressure of this moment – be it Bueckers, Fudd and the rest of Huskies starving after this elusive championship, or Iriafen, Smith and Howell, playing their injured teammate.

“Some players will stand up on this occasion and some are shrinking,” Auriemma said. “It’s just his nature.”