SPOKANE, Wash. -- Exactly seven days before USC took the court in the Elite Eight, the Trojans lost their superstar JuJu Watkins.
Her season-ending ACL tear wasn't how their tournament run -- which they hoped would lead to the Final Four -- was supposed to happen, USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said.
But with the Trojans' season ending Monday night in a 78-64 loss to UConn, they are confronted with re-adjusting their program not knowing when Watkins will be able to return.
"We don't know what JuJu will do. Will she take the whole year and redshirt? Will she try to come back at some point," Gottlieb told ESPN. "Those aren't conversations for right now, but I do think we will dive into how do we stay an elite team regardless of those circumstances?"
"We will have time to figure out how to be great, even if JuJu isn't out there," she said.
Time was one thing the Trojans didn't have after Watkins suffered her injury in the first quarter of their second-round tournament game a week ago.
"Losing JuJu was so unbelievably tough, especially at this point of the season. We were just doing everything on the fly," senior forward Kiki Iriafen told ESPN. "UConn is a great team ... But I think if we just had more time maybe things could have been different."
After Watkins went down in the first quarter against Mississippi State, the team played the rest of the game not knowing if she would be able to return. No one talked about it. They just played -- they had to.
Gottlieb and her staff informed the team about Watkins' prognosis in the locker room after the game when they got the news, Gottlieb told ESPN.
The team took Tuesday off, but when the Trojans returned to practice Wednesday -- which Watkins was at -- Gottlieb felt she had to set a tone.
"The emotions around our friend and our teammate, a great player, getting hurt are real and we can feel them, but at the same time the competitive spirit of us and what our goals are don't change," Gottlieb said.
After that, the team didn't spend much time publicly talking about their emotions, instead processing them in private. The team decided to all wear Nike shirts with Watkins' face on them before the Sweet 16, and during the game, a Funko Pop of Watkins sat on the floor in front of their bench. Afterward, Watkins FaceTimed her team in the locker room.
All of this was done to make sure she still felt connected to the team, and vice versa. But the emotions of it all still weren't fully unpacked.
"I think at some point the emotions of the last seven days will kick in more," Gottlieb said. "It was only tonight a week ago that one of the best players in college basketball ... went down ... I'm disappointed for everyone involved in our program but I think when I just take a little time and -- like, I'll still be so just, like, crushed for JuJu and the game because that just wasn't supposed to happen like that."
Gottlieb continued: "But I have no doubt that her comeback's going to be legendary, and I have no doubt that the strength of the program is not in doubt, and I think we proved that."