The habits that were built in practice? Crucial. But the season records? Unimportant.
Team chemistry and growth? Necessary. But stats and individual records? Blah.
It’s why Monday night’s Elite Eight game between UConn and USC remains compelling despite so much changing since Selection Sunday. The potential showdown was immediately circled by fans as the must-see rematch of the tournament, pitting the nation’s top two individual players — USC’s JuJu Watkins and UConn’s Paige Bueckers — against each other.
The teams advanced to deliver this matchup, but it won’t be the showdown that was expected. There will be no Watkins, who suffered a season-ending ACL tear in the second round. Yet, somehow, there’s more to unpack in the vacuum left in the tournament by Watkins’ exit.
Coaches consistently describe the Elite Eight as the toughest postseason hurdle. The Final Four is the hallowed ground of the NCAA Tournament. It’s nice to gain entrance to the Big Dance, but legends are made when only four teams remain. It’s why programs boast about their Final Fours, not Elite Eights. There’s an invisible but pretty blatant wall that separates the two, and right now, USC and UConn are knocking on it.
They’re in different situations, but they need the same thing: for players to make plays, and for the ball, every now and then, to fall their way.
“People say, ‘Well, take it one game at a time, take it one play at a time,’” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “We preach that, but in reality, some players are going to rise to the occasion, and some are going to shrink. It’s just the nature of it.”
One team, UConn, is motivated by Bueckers’ quest for an elusive national title. After years of Auriemma imploring her to take over games, the impending finish line of her college career seems to have been just the tool necessary to help her unlock her full potential — and UConn’s.
Then there’s USC, a team motivated by the player who’s not in Spokane. Reminders of Watkins surround the Trojans: the T-shirts they wore when they arrived at the arena for the Sweet 16, the JuJu Funko Pop that stood on the sidelines in that game, the video call afterward with Watkins when coach Lindsay Gottlieb’s 2-year-old daughter, Reese, asked whether the phone call meant Watkins was no longer hurt.
“No,” Gottlieb explained, “but she’s happy today.”
Even when this was all about JuJu vs. Paige, coaches knew there was an underlying theme: Both teams have needed contributions all around. In the last two games without Watkins, the Trojans have gotten more from their other players. Kiki Iriafen scored 36 points in the Trojans’ second-round win against Mississippi State, the most ever scored by a USC player in the NCAA Tournament. USC freshman Kennedy Smith matched a career-best 19 points in the Sweet 16 win over Kansas State.
Those recent performances matter, but they don’t guarantee a Final Four trip. When the ball is tossed up Monday night, neither team gets a head start because its players had the bigger night in the previous game. UConn doesn’t get extra chances because its program has been in this position more, and USC doesn’t get an extra player because it happens to be missing its best.
USC senior forward Rayah Marshall summed it up best.
“It’s March,” she said. “Throw the game ...
