When JuJu Watkins went down with an injury after being fouled in transition in the first quarter of Monday night’s Mississippi State-USC matchup, the tone shifted dramatically inside the Galen Center in Los Angeles. What fans had hoped would be an exciting send-off for their top-seeded Trojans turned into a tense, emotional scene after seeing their star player suffer what was eventually diagnosed as a torn ACL.
Mississippi State bore the brunt of that frustration from the USC faithful, as fans booed every time they touched the ball the rest of the first half. The game remained physical and tense throughout, and some players had to be separated after exchanging words in the handshake line. USC’s frustrations were understandable, as their path to a national championship got exponentially more difficult without their best player, but the play Watkins got hurt on didn’t appear to be anything of malicious intent.
After the game, Mississippi State coach Sam Purcell unfortunately knew what was coming for Chandler Prater, the player who committed the foul on the play Watkins was injured. Purcell offered his condolences to Watkins but also asked for fans not to come after Prater on social media.
Ranking every women’s Sweet 16 matchup: Duke vs. North Carolina among the most interesting games to watch Isabel Gonzalez Ranking every women’s Sweet 16 matchup: Duke vs. North Carolina among the most interesting games to watch “We don’t play to hurt, we play to compete and that’s just an unfortunate situation,” Purcell said. “There was no harm, and I hope us as a society, I know social media can be ugly, that you understand that the other lady that was involved that’s on my team is a woman of class. She’s comes from a family too of loving parents, I’m sure she is remorseful and obviously didn’t want to have that happen. I hope that we understand as a society that it was a thoughtful apology and don’t take it further than it needs to. On behalf of the Bulldogs, again, we’re praying for her recovery because she’s the ultimate competitor and we want to see her back on that court.”
That plea unfortunately did not stop fans from leaving vulgar comments on Prater’s Instagram page, and the Mississippi State guard has had to disable comments on posts to prevent further harassment. Mississippi State issued a statement to the Clarion Ledger regarding the backlash Prater has received online.
“To reiterate what coach [Sam] Purcell said following last night’s game, it was an unfortunate situation during a basketball play and our thoughts are with JuJu Watkins as she recovers. We recognize that emotions run high in competitive sports, but there is no excuse for personal attacks or harassment online toward the young women in our program. Mississippi State will continue to support all of our student-athletes, both on and off the court.”
It was sadly all too predictable that this would happen, as we’ve seen countless athletes receive threats and harassment on social media over things that happen between the lines during a game. Seeing Watkins get hurt was devastating for not just USC fans but women’s basketball fans as a whole, as the tournament lost a bit of its excitement seeing one of the biggest stars of the sport get hurt and it’s likely she misses most, if not all, of next season as well. The cruelty of sports is that injuries happen in the run of play, and it’s not fair or right for fans to blame Prater for an unfortunate incident on the court.
PHILADELPHIA — Normally, North Philadelphia is a vibrant, excited area of America’s inception city. But on this Tuesday, during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, 6 p.m. feels more like 6 a.m.
As I ride through Germantown, one of Philly’s multiple Muslim enclaves, the remnants of Ramadan are evident. Thobes, abayas and hijabs flood the streets like modest ribbons, while the groups of men, women and children that wear them calmly whisk through what’s typically the peak of heated post-work traffic with the intention of getting home to break the obligatory fast that accompanies this month with their families.
Seventeen-year-old Shayla Smith is no different. The shining star of Universal Audenried Charter School’s women’s basketball team is also oddly serene. If you were to take a picture of our table at this neighborhood cafe, the 5-foot-10 teenage Muslimah wouldn’t immediately present as the vicious downhill backcourt threat who has made history in Philly and captivated the coaching staff at Penn State, where she signed in December to play next season.
Much of that misconception is because of the hijab that’s worn underneath the Nittany Lions cap on her head. The Islamic garment doesn’t historically scream the word that best describes Smith on the court: “Hooper.”
“I started wearing the hijab when I was like 6 … to me, it’s normal,” Smith said when explaining her decision to wear her hijab and stay modestly covered in accordance with her Islamic faith en route to becoming a local sensation on the hardwood, with some of her social posts generating around 10,000 likes.
“There are Muslims everywhere [in Philadelphia]. It wasn’t until I started posting my clips on TikTok that I realized it was a thing. They’ll be in the comments like: ‘Oh, you can play basketball in that?’ ‘They’re going to make you take that off!’ I didn’t really see comments like this until social media because there are a lot of girls who play ball with the hijab on in Philly. I’m just the one getting the attention.”
According to 2024 polling, Philadelphia is home to about 300,000 Muslims. However, per local Islamic community leaders, this number could be higher given the lack of proper polling procedures. While some of this ummah can be attributed to Philadelphia’s vibrant immigrant community, the 2020 census revealed that Philly is a majority Black city with close to 40% of its residents identifying as African American. This means that most of Philadelphia’s Muslim population is made up of Black Americans who are native to both this country and Philadelphia — like Smith. The city has even been dubbed “The Mecca of the West” among the Black American Muslim community.
Because of the response she received on social media, Smith began to realize the life she was accustomed to is not as ordinary as it seems. Yet, instead of being shaken by ignorant and often Islamophobic comments, Smith was inspired by them.
When speaking to CBS Sports at the fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant, Smith detailed her ambitions to represent her city, culture, religion and sport. She also revealed her desires to expand past the Philadelphia city lines and become a global inspiration. In the process, Smith gave us a glimpse of the competitive fire that was stoked by the social media backlash. Smith first unleashed this flame during an interview with Philly’s WHYY public radio station when she confidently revealed the goal she’s set for herself.
“I want to be the first woman in the WNBA that wears the hijab.”
Without context, the statement sounds like hubris. And it’s certainly bold. Smith is a public school guard in a basketball region dominated by private schools. She ranks outside the top 100 in the 2025 recruiting class, according to 247Sports. Yet, Smith already has her sights set on making the WNBA and setting a new precedent.
However, we’re not talking about just any public school hooper. We’re talking about a local phenom who scored over 800 points this season and set Philadelphia’s public school scoring record with more than 2,500 career points. A record she broke in dramatic fashion.
“I didn’t think I would break the record that game,” Smith said. “I was 47 points away. I didn’t think I would score 47 points that game, but my shot was falling.”
Honestly, this record-setting performance was just another night at the office for Smith.
On the season, she averaged over 28 points a game to lift Universal Audenried Charter to their league championship and a city title. The program, whose trajectory changed once Smith enrolled in classes, was also in the hunt for a state championship before losing in the tournament’s Final Four.
So, how is it that a literal generational scorer and culture-changing guard flew under the radar for so long? Is it the high school she chose to attend? The lack of consistency on shoe-brand circuits? … Is it the hijab?
Well, at its core, recruiting and scouting is a guessing game. Some NCAA programs will not take the risk on a prospect like Smith — despite her acclaimed résumé — without the scouting services crunching the numbers. And unfortunately, there aren’t enough scouts at these platforms to attend a public school game in South Philly to see the magic Smith is producing on a nightly basis.
Smith understands that recruiting and scouting are subjective fields. So, when deciding on a college, she only desired to go to a program that needed and wanted her.
“It was Penn State, St. John’s and Florida,” she said when revealing the top three finalists from her recruiting process. “Penn State just felt like home. Out of all the schools that recruited me, they felt like the one who wanted me the most.”
Penn State’s lead recruiter in Smith’s process was assistant coach Sean Blair. Blair had been recruiting Smith since he was on the coaching staff at Monmouth. Once he returned to his alma mater, he continued to pursue Smith because he was enamored by her prolific scoring ability.
“I knew I wanted to recruit Shayla after watching her play for the first time when she was in the ninth grade. I love players that are great at a specific thing and she’s just such a natural scorer,” Blair explained. “You know if you’re gonna make a trip to watch her that she’s going to put the ball in the basket and show off her fearless mentality.”
With Penn State believing in her the way she believes in herself, it only felt natural for a Philadelphia underdog to begin her success story with the Nittany Lions.
Although the story Shayla is writing may come in a form that most Americans haven’t seen, the moral and its ideal outcome are the same.
“I want to be a winner,” she said plainly. “I want to be one of the best to ever do it.”
The Ramadan sawm may have dulled the already smooth Smith a little more than usual, but the narrative she has for herself is very clear. She also knows that, as a Black Muslim, she’ll inspire an underrepresented community of women basketball players with her story since, according to Pew Research Center, Black Muslims are a growing demographic that now accounts for 20% of all the Muslims in the United States.
“I love my religion. I’m not going to take my hijab off for anybody,” she said. “You don’t have to choose between your religion and your passions. You don’t see anyone, professionally, playing basketball in the hijab at all. I want the world to know that it doesn’t matter what you look like, where you come from, none of that. If you’re good, no one’s going to be able to deny it.”
The opening weekend of the 2025 Women’s NCAA Tournament is in the books, and it was unfortunately highlighted by a major injury to USC star JuJu Watkins and an overall lack of excitement — a few second-round games, namely Maryland’s double-overtime victory over Alabama — aside.
The upside to the lack of upsets, though, is that the Sweet 16 is loaded. Every single No. 1, 2 and 3 seed advanced, and no seed higher than a No. 5 is still alive. That should mean plenty of competitive and entertaining basketball lies ahead.
Before the action gets started on Friday, let’s take a moment to reset and reseed the Sweet 16.
Re-seeding the Sweet 16 1 team logo Huskies The Huskies rolled through the opening weekend with a 69-point win over Arkansas State — the biggest margin of victory in a tournament game since they beat St. Francis by 88 back in 2018 — and a 34-point win over South Dakota State. Their high-powered offense is firing on all cylinders, Paige Bueckers tied her career-high with 34 points in her final home game and Azzi Fudd announced she’ll be returning to Storrs next season. The vibes are extremely high for the Huskies, who are the current betting favorites to win it all. 2 team logo Gamecocks For the second year in a row, the Gamecocks found themselves in a real scrap with Indiana early in the tournament, but were able to hang on for the win. Could that be a good omen as they try to become the first team since UConn (2013-16) to repeat as champions? The Gamecocks’ depth and defense are their two biggest strengths, and those were on full display in the first two rounds. 3 team logo Bruins The Bruins were the No. 1 overall seed heading into the tournament, but didn’t look the part during the first half of their second-round matchup with Richmond, whose five-out offense caused real problems. Eventually, though, the Bruins’ size and athleticism proved too move for the Spiders, as Lauren Betts delivered arguably the best performance of her college career. She’ll need to step up again on Friday against a feisty but undersized Ole Miss team. 4 team logo Fighting Irish The Fighting Irish dropped to a No. 3 seed after a disappointing close to the regular season and an early exit from the ACC Tournament, but during the opening weekend they showed why they were ranked No. 1 in the country just a few months ago. Crushing Stephen F. Austin is one thing, but the way they dismantled Michigan showed that they are officially back on track. The only real concern for them is Olivia Miles’ ankle, which she tweaked in the first round. She did start against Michigan, but was not as effective as usual. They’ll need her as close to 100% as possible against TCU. 5 team logo Longhorns The Longhorns had slow starts in both of their first-round games before eventually overwhelming William & Mary and Illinois, and we didn’t really learn much in either contest. Their size, elite defense and effort on the glass was far too much for lesser opponents, but real questions remain about their offense, which relies almost entirely on scoring in the paint and getting to the line. How will that formula fare as the opponents get tougher? Tennessee, who loves to get up and down and launch 3s, will be a real stress test in the Sweet 16. 6 team logo Lady Tigers The Tigers were another team that limped, figuratively and literally, into the Big Dance. They lost three of their last four games heading into the tournament and stars Aneesah Morrow (foot) and Flau’Jae Johnson (shin) were both dealing with injuries. Now that both are healthy and back to their best, the Tigers look underseeded as a No. 3. They destroyed San Diego State and Florida State during the opening weekend and scored 100-plus points in both wins. In fact, the Tigers looked so good that they’re actually slight favorites to beat NC State and return to the Elite Eight for the third consecutive year. 7 team logo Horned Frogs Very few teams can shoot the ball as well as the Horned Frogs, as they proved by going 19 of 40 from beyond the arc in their wins over Fairleigh Dickinson and Louisville to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history. But while this is a new height for the school, it isn’t for the players, nearly all of whom have gone on deep tourney runs at their previous schools. That experience will be key as they prepare for a Sweet 16 showdown with Notre Dame, whom they beat back in November in what was, at the time, a huge upset. 8 team logo Wolfpack The Wolfpack had to dig deep in the first round to finally pull away from Vermont. That near-scare clearly woke them up, and they destroyed Michigan State in the second round two days later. Most of the key figures on this season’s team were a part of the Final Four run last year, so we know they wont be afraid in big moments. But can they consistently make shots? When they do, they look almost unbeatable. They’ll have to be locked in on Friday against an LSU team that beat them by double digits earlier in the season. 9 team logo Trojans The Trojans lost star guard JuJu Watkins to a torn ACL during their second-round win over Mississippi State, which was not only a major blow to their national title hopes, but women’s basketball as a whole. Watkins, the likely Naismith Player of the Year, accounted for 30% of their offense during the regular season and it’s impossible to make up for her impact on both ends of the floor. With Kiki Iriafen and an elite defense, this is still a very solid team, and they could find a way to beat Kansas State in the Sweet 16, but it’s hard to see them going any further than that. 10 team logo Sooners The Sooners run and run and run. They lead the nation in pace (80.5), and most opponents cannot keep up. Florida Gulf Coast and Iowa certainly could not during the first two rounds of the tournament, and now Oklahoma is into the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2013. There, they’ll face a UConn team that looks primed to finally win a national title again. The Sooners play a style that lends itself to upsets, but they’ll need to shoot the ball much better than they did during the first weekend. 11 team logo Blue Devils The Blue Devils were minutes away from being on the wrong side of the first — and potentially only — major upset of this tournament, but found a way to sneak past Oregon in the second round. That performance was not encouraging, but it did come without star freshman and leading scorer Toby Fournier, who could be back for the Sweet 16. Like so many top teams, the Blue Devils can really get after it on the defensive end, but have trouble finding consistent offense. Fournier’s potential return would be a major boost on that side of the ball. 12 team logo Tar Heels The Tar Heels have largely flown under the radar during the first two rounds of the tournament. They had a business-like win over Oregon State, then fought off West Virginia in a contest that was at times an affront to basketball. Their defensive-minded style doesn’t make for the most exciting action, but it does give them a chance to win games. Will it be enough against their archrival Duke in the Sweet 16? We’ll soon find out. 13 team logo Wildcats The Wildcats’ win over the other Wildcats from Kentucky in the second round was one of the best games of the tournament so far. Star center Ayoka Lee’s return to action from a foot injury that cost her most of the last two months has been a huge boost. Lee gives them a legitimate interior presence to go along with their elite 3-point shooting (38.8%, second in the country). Due to JuJu Watkins’ absence, they have a real chance to beat No. 1 seed USC and advance to the Elite Eight for just the second time in program history. 14 team logo Lady Volunteers The Lady Volunteers are this season’s team that could beat anyone or lose to anyone. Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that after dropping three of their final four games prior to the tournament, including a loss to Georgia, they destroyed South Florida and beat Ohio State in Columbus to reach the Sweet 16. First-year coach Kim Caldwell’s unique style features frequent substitutions, full-court pressure, fast-paced action and plenty of 3-pointers. When their shots start falling, look out. Could they stun Texas? Yes. Could they lose that game by 25? Also yes. 15 team logo Rebels The Rebels went into Waco and took down Baylor largely because they forced the Bears into 21 turnovers. That is the Rebels’ M.O. They’re tough, they’re physical, they’re athletic and it’s not fun to play against them for 40 minutes. Effort can only get you so far, though, and the Rebels have often fallen short against the best competition this season (8-9 in Quad 1 games). They’re going to have a tough time changing that trend against UCLA, especially considering their lack of size in the paint to deal with Lauren Betts. 16 team logo Terrapins The Terrapins’ double-overtime win over Alabama in the second round was an instant classic and one of the best tournament games in years. Sarah Te-Biasu shouldn’t have to buy a meal in College Park any time soon after all of the clutch shots she hit to keep the Terps alive. As exciting as that game was, it didn’t give anyone confidence that the Terps can hang with South Carolina. For that matter, neither did Maryland’s first-round win over Norfolk State, which was much closer than it should have been.
SPOKANE, Wash. — Baker Smith, one of the LSU women’s basketball practice players, was going on a family trip to Disney World until a text message completely changed his plans.
“I was walking to practice, got a text and immediately called my Mom,” Smith said. “I was like, ‘Mom, look, I know we were supposed to be on a family trip right now, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’ I couldn’t pass it up.”
For the first time, LSU flew out its practice players, including Smith, to the Women’s NCAA Tournament. Five players made the trip to Spokane for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight. Smith said that because there are 15-20 practice players, a different group of five could be going to Tampa if the Tigers advance.
Smith is a junior studying civil engineering. He played in high school and decided to join the “dream team” to continue playing while being in school.
“Just to be in that gym listening to coach (Kim) Mulkey everyday, as somebody who loves basketball is just such an honor,” Smith said. “The things that you hear, life lessons, just outstanding stuff.”
In Smith’s first year, practice players did not travel with the team to the Big Dance. However, he and a few other guys got in his car and drove to Dallas to watch the Tigers play. It was all worth it as LSU won its first national title in program history.
Women’s March Madness 2025: Printable NCAA Tournament bracket with Sweet 16 action underway CBS Sports Staff Women’s March Madness 2025: Printable NCAA Tournament bracket with Sweet 16 action underway Smith was glad he decided to make the trip, and so was Mulkey.
“We went back to the team hotel and we saw her. She gave us the biggest hug and the biggest thank you for being here,” Smith said. “To this day, that is still the best memory I have about her. She is such a caring person. She is just so inviting, for us to be here, she is very selfless. She’s the best.”
Another memorable moment of his career was his very first practice, when Angel Reese was still around.
“I walked out and I’m guarding Angel Reese, and she said, ‘Are you big enough to guard me?'” Smith said. “I didn’t think I was, and I was not. SEC Player of the Year, so she kinda kicked my butt.”
Reese moved on to the WNBA, but players like leading scorer Flau’jae Johnson are still very much not a walk in the park.
“A lot of guys think they can just hang with any girls in the world, but not these girls,” Smith said. “We get told how to play them, whether it’s offense or defense. We are told specifically what they want from us but at the end of the day, trying to guard Flau’jae is not always the easiest assignment.”
But are there any moments in which he was able to truly get the best of an LSU player?
“Not really, to be honest with you,” Smith laughed. “As long as I can hang with them, I can be proud about that.”
SPOKANE, Wash. — Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin’s players say she is always “doing too much,” and that’s why the team is now in its second Sweet 16 in three years. But most importantly, it’s why the players love being on her roster.
KK Deans still remembers one of her first 1-on-1 workouts with McPhee-McCuin after transferring from Florida in 2023, a workout she admittedly did not give her all in.
“She went in her office and she pulled out the stats that I had against them (the previous) year and started reading them out,” Deans told CBS Sports. “I was like, ‘Oh, she’s crazy.’ But I always knew that she was going to hold me accountable and push me to my limits.”
But not everything is so serious with McPhee-McCuin. For freshman Sira Thienou, TikTok dances are how the coach, at least in part, convinced her to join the team. Every time McPhee-McCuin visited her, they would do a TikTok together.
“I made up my mind that I’m really comfortable with her and this was going to be a good duo,” Thienou said.
And yes, McPhee-McCuin is the one who pitches dances to her players, not the other way around. She has a few solid moves, and her players have learned them. The clip below shows them demonstrating her current go-to dance move.
The Rebels also came up with their own little tradition of speed walking to the locker room after their pre-game warmups. Deans is certain she would win most of the time, but she believes there is foul play.
“Madison Scott, she’s a cheater because she is trying to ‘count,'” Deans said, with Thienou next to her agreeing. “One, two and in three she is gone.”
Women’s March Madness 2025: Printable NCAA Tournament bracket with Sweet 16 action underway CBS Sports Staff Women’s March Madness 2025: Printable NCAA Tournament bracket with Sweet 16 action underway This is one of the most energetic locker rooms in the Sweet 16, but it also knows how to lock in. Ole Miss will be taking on No. 1 overall seed UCLA on Friday while trying to reach the Elite Eight for the first time since 2007. The Rebels are the underdog, and they are well aware of it.
“People really always sleep on us, but every time we step on the court we show who we are,” Thienou said.
As McPhee-McCuin pointed out, this is a battle-tested team. They’ve had multiple close losses to top opponents, and even managed to upset LSU in Baton Rouge earlier this month.
“We’ve played half of this Sweet 16, so we could care less what anybody is ranked,” McPhee-McCuin said. “… As far as I’m concerned, we kind of just take it game-by-game, matchup-by-matchup. And we always go into games as underdogs.”
Her locker room echoes those sentiments and embraces the underdog mentality.
“We defend, we dictate and disrupt. We are just going to come in and be us,” Deans said. “Nothing different, just be the team that is the underdogs. If we are the underdogs, we are the underdogs. We take it for what it is. We are coming to compete and work hard and fight for a spot in the Elite Eight.”
Florida State guard Ta’Niya Latson, the leading scorer in the country this season at 25.2 points per game, is entering the transfer portal, her agents told ESPN on Thursday. The Seminoles’ season came to an end in the second round of the Women’s NCAA Tournament when they lost to LSU.
Per Andraya Carter, Florida State had been preparing for such a scenario due to Latson’s incredible play and her ability to command a major NIL deal. While Latson will keep an open mind about a return to Tallahassee, the Seminoles are likely looking at a rebuild even if she does come back due to the impending departures of seniors Makayla Timpson and O’Mariah Gordon — their second- and third-leading scorers.
Women’s March Madness 2025: Printable NCAA Tournament bracket with Sweet 16 action underway CBS Sports Staff Women’s March Madness 2025: Printable NCAA Tournament bracket with Sweet 16 action underway Latson is the best player in the portal thus far and will be highly sought after by many of the top programs. As we wait for her to make a decision, here are some potential landing spots.
Florida State FSU has to be included on the list. Perhaps Latson and her camp are just paying lip service to the program, but if she was 100% gone, she would have said that.
Latson has spent three seasons playing for coach Brooke Wyckoff, who has helped turn her into one of the best players in the country. While Latson may not compete for a national title if she goes back to Tallahassee, she’ll have the ball in her hands all the time and will get to showcase her skills for WNBA teams in a system where she’s comfortable.
There’s certainly a case to be made that if she wants to protect her draft stock she should stay at Florida State.
South Carolina Shortly after the news broke that Latson was entering the portal, South Carolina’s Raven Johnson was already starting her recruiting pitch. Johnson played with Latson in high school at Westlake in Atlanta, where the duo won multiple state championships.
“I’d tell her, let’s run it back,” Johnson said. “I’m definitely gonna try to get her to come here. I’m gonna be in her ear. I would be happy. We all would be happy to play with her.”
Dawn Staley has built the Gamecocks, who are vying for back-to-back national championships and their third title in four years, into one of the premier programs in the country. Any player would be interested in playing for her, and Latson also has the personal connection with Johnson. Plus, if there’s anything the Gamecocks really need, it’s a go-to scorer, and Latson would obviously fill that role.
USC JuJu Watkins went down with a torn ACL in USC’s second-round win over Mississippi State in the NCAA Tournament earlier this week. The injury is a devastating blow to the Trojans’ national championship hopes, not just this season, but next season as well.
The program has not announced a long-term timeline for Watkins’ recovery, but there’s a good chance she misses the entire 2025-26 campaign. Even in a best-case scenario, she would likely not be back on the court until sometime in January or February.
No one in the country can replace what Watkins does on both ends of the floor, but Latson would give the Trojans, who are also losing Kiki Iriafen to the WNBA, a legitimate No. 1 option on the offensive end. It’s unclear if either party would be interested, but in theory Latson makes a lot of sense as a one-year stop-gap for Lindsay Gottlieb and Co.
Texas When Latson was going through the recruiting process in 2021, she took an official visit to Austin and had Texas among her final choices. Vic Schaefer was in charge then and remains the Longhorns’ coach. He would ostensibly still have interest in coaching Latson after all.
The bigger question is whether Latson would want to join the Longhorns. If she does, the on-court fit is obvious.
Texas earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but are not considered one of the primary title contenders due to its offense. The Longhorns have the lowest 3-point rate in the country and really struggle to score outside of the paint on a consistent basis. While Latson is not a prolific outside shooter, her ability to create her own shot from the perimeter would give the Longhorns a major boost on the offensive end. Plus, Texas is set to lose multiple guards in Rori Harmon and Shay Holle.
It’s been almost a year since the UCLA Bruins fell to LSU in the 2024 Women’s NCAA Tournament Round of 16. The Bruins held a three-point lead over the Tigers with less than two minutes to go, but the 2023 champions came roaring back to win by nine.
That loss in Albany in no small way fueled coach Cori Close and her team.
“I think the bottom line is when you have regret and you have pain, which is we have that from last season, that it spurs you on,” Close told CBS Sports on a phone call Wednesday.
Close, who took responsibility for the LSU loss, described the months following UCLA’s Sweet 16 exit as a soul-searching expedition. Once the wounds from the loss healed enough to reflect, the Bruins committed to getting better and doing simple things with elite consistency.
Junior center Lauren Betts has embodied this approach.
“We watched a lot of film from last season, which hasn’t been easy,” Betts told CBS Sports at Big Ten Media Day in October. “It’s definitely holding us accountable to set this new kind of standard for our team.”
Betts leads the Bruins in seven statistical categories this season, including points per game, minutes per game and field goal percentage. She’s also been named a Naismith Player of the Year finalist.
Spending time reviewing film helped UCLA refine the type of team it wanted to be in the 2024-25 season. As one of the upperclassmen on the roster, Betts has taken on leadership responsibilities for the Bruins. That started with setting the tone for the eight newcomers — four freshman and four transfers.
Women’s March Madness 2025: Printable NCAA Tournament bracket with Sweet 16 action underway CBS Sports Staff Women’s March Madness 2025: Printable NCAA Tournament bracket with Sweet 16 action underway “We’re coming to this conference to win,” Betts said in the fall. She emphasized proclaiming victory was about setting expectations and calling teammates into the culture, as opposed to being tough or intimidating.
In fact, the message Close and her staff have stressed all season is the importance of meeting success as a team.
“We have a phrase: ‘Sometimes you, sometimes me, but always us,’ and this is a team that doesn’t just say that,” Close said Wednesday.
Kiki Rice stepping up as leader And while Betts has garnered a lot of much-deserved attention this season, the UCLA team has another strong leader in Kiki Rice.
Bruins assistant coach Shannon LeBeauf spearheads the Leaders in Training (LIT) curriculum for the program. Although the program is voluntary, Close admitted Rice was “told to do it because we need her to be a leader.”
The results have been a focused, vocal and highly influential lead guard.
“What Coach Shannon has done so brilliantly is helped her [realize], ‘You know what? You have a special way that you can influence, and it doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s. It doesn’t have to be this loud, fiery voice. It can be very 1-on-1, very directed,'” Close said. “And she has worked with Kiki for her to find her style of influence, and and I think that has really been so important to us.”
Throughout the year, Rice has called team meetings and communicated with the coaching staff the night before games to go over the play cards, all in service of being prepared for anything.
“She’s really just an extension of the coaching staff,” Close said of Rice, a 2025 Nancy Lieberman Award finalist. “She has the highest work ethic on the team. Thankfully, we have a lot of people who work really, really hard … it’s been really gratifying to watch her really find her voice and her style of leadership.”
Bruins’ unglamorous approach The Bruins return to the Sweet 16 on Friday, this time as the first overall seed in the tournament. While regret may have been the impetus for the Bruins’ offseason reset, UCLA seems to have other motivations presently. Not only did UCLA drop two games to USC this season, but there has been an underlying feeling that the Hollywood’s team moniker hasn’t extended to the Bruins.
“[USC Trojans] have the Hollywood and and we’ve just got these scrappy team players that are really talented, but no one’s talking about us,” Close said in regard to the media coverage of USC and UCLA this season.
USC defeated UCLA twice in the regular season, but UCLA finally found a victory over its rival in the Big Ten championship game. The teams could meet again in the Final Four, but USC will do so without Watkins after the star sophomore suffered a torn ACL on Monday against Mississippi State.
“I’m so sorry about what’s happened to JuJu,” Close said. “It just breaks my heart.”
Like all of the basketball world, Close is devastated that a young star suffered a season-ending injury. Whether Watkins’ injury impacts the local or national attention cannot be known, and it’s not what the Bruins are focused on.
“We just want to keep winning and growing and giving to each other,” Close said.
In that way, the heartbeat of the team remains constant. And she wants that heartbeat to be palpable to fans who may be seeing UCLA play for the first time in this tournament.
“If they’re just tuning in to what we’re doing, I think I would want them to say, ‘Man, they play better together than any of their individual talents,” Close said. And what a selfless, hard-working, and connected team.’
“And if we’re that, I think they’re going to be talking about us all the way to Tampa.”
The UCLA Bruins take on Ole Miss on Friday for a chance to advance to the Elite Eight.
SPOKANE, Wash. — The news of USC guard JuJu Watkins tearing her ACL made UConn stars Paige Buekers and Azzi Fudd “nauseous” because unfortunately they knew the feeling all too well.
Bueckers got injured ahead of the 2022-23 season, just months after the Huskies had made it to the 2022 NCAA Tournament championship game. Instead of helping her team get over the hump during her junior season, Bueckers was forced to watch from the bench.
“The first week was devastation, a sense of hurt and disappointment. A ‘why me?’ sort of mentality,” Bueckers said. “‘Why now?’ A lot of questions that you have that are going to go unanswered. But then your motivation, your strength your faith and peace kick in, ‘everything happens for a reason.’ And then surgery happens and every single day that passes by is a day closer of you getting to play basketball again.”
Fudd has faced multiple injuries through her career, but the worst one was when she tore her ACL in 2023. Like Bueckers, she said the first week was also filled with difficult feelings of shock and disbelief. However, she found a way to keep her mind in the right place.
JuJu Watkins injury: USC star’s season ends with torn ACL after contact in Women’s March Madness game Jack Maloney JuJu Watkins injury: USC star’s season ends with torn ACL after contact in Women’s March Madness game “I have a bracelet that says purpose on it and I wore that,” she said. “I made sure every day I was doing rehab, or literally anything, I was doing it with purpose because I didn’t want to take any shortcuts and there be reason why a year comes and I can’t be back on the floor playing.
“… I know that JuJu is going to come back from this and attack her rehab how she has eve single day playing basketball. I was nauseous hearing the news for her. You don’t want to see anyone go through it, but she’s going to come back stronger.”
The timing adds an extra layer of mental difficulty for Watkins because her team was heavily relying on her this season and now the Trojans have to play rest of the tournament without her.
However, her teammates perhaps gave her a little peace of mind with how they finished the second round game against Mississippi State. Watkins went down during the first quarter and left the building to get an MRI. In her absence, Kiki Iriafen led five double-digit scorers while putting up one of the best performances of her career with 36 points and nine rebounds.
USC will try to continue advancing without Watkins, and the first full game without her will be against Kansas State on Friday in the Sweet 16. Although Watkins won’t be playing, Bueckers and Fudd are two of the many people in the basketball world cheering for her as she begins her recovery.
“For JuJu, your heart breaks for her,” Bueckers said. “Just the devastation, especially right now during the tournament not being able to be out there with your team during the most important part of the year. I know especially [Fudd and I] empathize for her. We’ve been there and we know how much it sucks.
“But you don’t get to be as good as JuJu if you don’t have great motor, a great work ethic. She’s going to attack this process just as she has attacked basketball. She’s great at basketball, she is going to be great at this recovery process. I’m disappointed for her but she’ll be back better than ever and this will be a little set back to the great story that she’ll have.”
Back in 2023, the NCAA changed the structure of the women’s basketball tournament, condensing the regionals to just two sites instead of four. This year the two host sites for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 are Spokane, Washington and Birmingham, Alabama.
The reasoning behind the concept was to get more fans to the regional sites. Having eight games at each site rather than four makes it more likely to get general fans of women’s basketball to make the trip and buy tickets, which means attendance is slightly less dependent on the fan bases of the teams playing to fill the arenas. The change also happened after the spotlight got turned on the NCAA for the facilities and amenities provided to the women’s tournament compared to the men’s, and centralizing regionals to two locations made it easier (and, surely, cheaper) to provide better facilities and offerings than doing it at four locations.
Not everyone is a fan of the new system, and on Friday one of the biggest voices in the sport, UConn coach Geno Auriemma, ripped the NCAA for the issues it presents to teams during his press availability. Auriemma got teed up on a question about two teams having to fly across the country on Tuesday and then play in the Final Four on Friday in Tampa, and used that as a jumping off point to air his many grievances with the NCAA’s new set up.
“Somebody’s always gonna have to travel, but it’d only be one team. Correct? One team,” Auriemma started. “In a normal world run by normal people, there’d only be four teams here. Which means there would be no games today. The games would be tomorrow. Which means we wouldn’t have to get up a 6 a.m. to have an 8 o’clock practice here this morning for an hour. Which means we wouldn’t have to get up at 5 a.m. to have a 7:30 shoot around for half an hour, take us longer to get through security than to actually be on the court.
“God bless whoever wins Monday night, and they’ve gotta fly cross-country which is all day Tuesday, and then they have two days, Wednesday and Thursday, to play the biggest game of their life. The guys, who don’t know shit about shit, according to a lot of women’s basketball people, they finish Sunday, then they have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and then they play Saturday. But there’s a lot of people in the women’s basketball community that think they’re smarter than that.
“So whoever came up with this super regional stuff — and I know who they are — ruined the game. They did. They ruined the game,” Auriemma continued, sticking the dismount on his rant. “Half the country has no chance to get to a game in person. But you’re making billions off of TV. Well, actually you’re not — that would be the men’s tournament. So, yeah, there’s a lot of issues that they need to fix. And again, we could get our ass beat tomorrow and that won’t change my feelings.”
Auriemma’s complaints are understandable. The practice situation, in particular, is abysmal, and the new schedule to play games on Friday and Sunday instead of Sunday and Tuesday for the Final Four certainly creates a time crunch. The NCAA could probably mitigate some of the practice timing problems by selecting regional sites that can house more practice locations and build identical courts in those spots. That may not satiate coaches who want their teams to get reps on the actual court in the actual arena, but it could keep them from having to stack practices in the morning because games happen in the afternoon.
While Auriemma took a flamethrower to the NCAA, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley sees things a bit differently. While she agreed that the shootaround and practice schedule issue is real, she thinks the two regional structure is better for fans and helps raise attendance for the games, which is a worthy trade-off.
“[The practice schedule] is probably it,” Staley said when asked about issues the two regional set-up presents. “You don’t get a shootaround time at a reasonable hour. Other than that, I mean, I actually like the two regions. I like having seven other teams that’s trying to advance to the Elite Eight and advance to the Final Four right in one place. I do think it allows our fans, fans of women’s basketball, to gravitate to one spot. I know the attendance will be up because of it. So bottom line, we need to drive revenue as much as possible.”
This year’s travel split for the 1 seeds was pretty simple to figure out for the NCAA, as sending South Carolina and Texas to Birmingham and USC and UCLA to Spokane was an easy decision. However, with there not being any 2 seeds from the West Coast — TCU being the furthest West — some teams were destined for long travel days, and UConn happened to land one of the short straws (along with NC State).
Perhaps Staley would feel a bit differently if South Carolina had cross-country travel to deal with, but one of the perks of being a perennial top seed is that you tend to get put in a regional closer to home. In the three years of the new system, South Carolina has played in Greenville, Albany, and now Birmingham. UConn, on the other hand has made a trip out West each year of the new system, playing second weekend games in Seattle, Portland, and now Spokane. It’s pretty clear this frustration has been building over those three trips out West for Auriemma, and he’s going to do his best to push the powers that be to return to the four regional model. That likely won’t happen any time soon, though, as future regional sites are already set through 2028.
As time wound down in the third quarter of South Carolina’s Sweet 16 win over Maryland in the 2025 Women’s NCAA Tournament, the score was tied at 50-50 until MiLaysia Fulwiley decided to change that. She pushed the ball up the floor in transition, but didn’t have numbers and the shot clock was off. The smart play would have been to pull up and hold for the last shot. Instead, Fulwiley brought the ball around her back and put up an off-balance floater.
It caught nothing but net.
“I expect her to do the things that she was doing out there for us,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “I don’t know how it’s going to look because it looks a lot different than most. She’s got a lot of gall to try some of the stuff that she does, but it’s just part of who she is.”
Fulwiley’s daring drive to end the third was one of many key plays the sophomore made in the second half on Friday to help the Gamecocks escape with a 71-67 victory and keep their season alive. She also made the go-ahead basket late in the fourth and scored an NCAA Tournament career-high 23 points, while adding five rebounds and three assists
No. 1 seed South Carolina is hoping to become the first team to repeat as national champions since UConn won four titles in a row from 2013-16, and was a massive favorite coming in against a Maryland team that struggled in the first round against Norfolk State and needed late heroics to beat Alabama in double overtime.
Early on, though, it was clear this would not be an easy night for the Gamecocks. While the Terrapins were not known for their defense this season, they succeeded in mucking things up and making the Gamecocks uncomfortable. At halftime, the Gamecocks were trailing by two, shooting 31.6% from the field and barely had more field goals (12) than turnovers (eight).
All season long, the Gamecocks have taken a by-committee approach on the offensive end. Joyce Edwards is their leading scorer at just 13.2 points per game and they have six players averaging at least eight points (Fulwiley is second at 11.2 per game). You cannot argue with their success, but at times their lack of a go-to scorer has been problematic. Friday’s contest was the latest example.
When a game turns into a slog or the team has nothing going on the offensive end, you need someone who can just go get a bucket. Fulwiley has the talent to do just that, but she doesn’t always get the opportunity due to her shaky decision-making and struggle to handle Staley’s tough coaching. Even as a sophomore, she still comes off the bench and is eighth on the team in playing time (19 minutes per game).
“When I get on [MiLaysia] it’s more of — does she take bad shots, yes,” Staley said. “She makes a living off of making bad shots, which is good. Everybody’s not capable of doing that. You can take bad shots and you can never make the bad shots. She makes them. But when you take a bad shot or you miss a shot that you get back on defense and you execute like we need to execute.”
There were plenty of moments Friday where it looked like it would not be Fulwiley’s night. She went 3 of 9 in the first half and got yanked after missing a deep 3-pointer in the fourth quarter. On this occasion, though, she was able to respond to the adversity.
“There was an instance in this game where I got on her big time,” Staley said. “Two months ago she wouldn’t be able to recover from it. Two months ago she would have shut down and we probably would have lost the game because she was the only one who could really manufacture her own shot and make baskets.”
The Gamecocks were clinging to a one-point lead when Fulwiley took that misguided 3 with 6:36 to play. She came out at the next dead ball, and didn’t get back on the court until the 2:31 mark when the Gamecocks had fallen behind by one. Nine seconds later she made the go-ahead layup, then added another clutch bucket with just over a minute to play to push the lead to four, before adding two free throws to help ice the game.
“She just wants to win,” Staley said. “In those moments is when I feel like I can coach her the most, when she’ll listen the most… She’s grown to the fact that — it gets hot. Everything is not spoken in a soft tone. The kitchen gets hot when you’re trying to survive in the NCAA Tournament. She’s gotta handle it, because it’s not gonna be me. Her next coach in the WNBA is gonna scream too. It’s what we do. It’s our livelihood. I’m glad she responded.”
Fulwiley’s response sent South Carolina into the Elite Eight for the fifth consecutive year. There, they’ll face No. 2 seed Duke on Sunday in Birmingham, Ala. with a trip to the Final Four on the line.
