As much as we hate them, injuries are always a part of the equation in sports. Notably, the USC Trojans learned that the hard way in their latest game of the NCAA Tournament.
Superstar guard JuJu Watkins sustained a season-ending knee injury. The timing couldn’t be worse, as her team could meet Paige Bueckers and the UConn Huskies in the Elite Eight.
That’s why, with Watkins out of the way, ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith believes it’s time for Bueckers to step up and prove that she’s the best player in all of college basketball.
Stephen A. Smith urges Paige Bueckers to step up
“Now we gotta look at Paige Bueckers and we have to say, ‘Go ahead girl, do your thing,’” Smith said on ESPN’s First Take. “Do what we would have expected from JuJu, because we were expecting that collision course.”
The controversial pundit doesn’t want to see the Huskies win games and leave it at that. He wants Bueckers to play like a superstar and put on a show for the viewers at home:
“It’s not just about winning games, losing games,” Smith continued. “It’s about people being box office and being star attractions… That’s what the expectation is going to be now, simply for us to be as intrigued as we anticipated we would be, because we knew what JuJu Watkins was gonna bring to the table.”
Of course, the Trojans first need to get past Kansas State, and the Huskies need to beat Oklahoma before a potential rematch from last year’s Elite Eight matchup, so there’s no need to get ahead of ourselves.