So much had been heaped on JuJu Watkins from the start — from the moment she set foot on USC’s campus, she was the one who would bring the program back to the mountaintop. This season, she was the player who would carry the star power in women’s college basketball in the wake of Caitlin Clark.

It was a lot of weight on anyone’s shoulders, but she handled it well. She thrived under that responsibility and blossomed in the spotlight.

But last weekend, the biggest star in women’s college basketball was carried away after collapsing to the court with a season-ending ACL tear. Her absence has left USC fans stunned and the women’s college basketball world restless.

Some kind words for JuJu Watkins 🥹 pic.twitter.com/8syMkUOUCu

— espnW (@espnW) March 25, 2025

Salt in the wound? Commercials featuring Watkins will continue playing during the NCAA Tournament. She’s the biggest individual star in women’s college hoops right now, drawing red-carpet-like turnout from celebrities at her games in the Galen Center. That reception would have boomed with a Final Four trip or national championship as an undeniable Hollywood storyline.

While prayers rained on Los Angeles for Watkins’ recovery, questions bubbled up: What now? Who now?

It’s a fair question. And it echoes the refrain women’s basketball was asked repeatedly after last season, when Clark departed for the WNBA. Would her legions of fans and millions of viewers who set records watching her play for Iowa stick around for the 2024-25 college season?

Nobody expected this season’s tournament to match the record-setting viewership of last season, but progress can’t be measured just in year-to-year gains. And while no one expected the numbers to quite reach the fever pitch of Clark Mania a season ago, the trend continues in one direction: upward.

The first two rounds of the tournament featured no Cinderellas, no major upsets, no Clark. They were light on the dramatics that some believe necessary to attract viewers. And yet, the numbers don’t lie — ratings from the first two rounds ranked second best in tournament history, coming in at 43 percent higher than in 2023, which now stands as the third-best year in tournament history viewership.

As generational as Clark was, the game has still shown momentum in her wake. With Watkins absent over the rest of this tournament, as large as that will loom, there’s no reason to think the sport isn’t strong enough to continue.

Because this question isn’t new.

Many forget that before Clark captivated the country, Paige Bueckers was doing the same. A UConn star as a freshman, she won the national Player of the Year in 2021 and became an early darling of the name, image and likeness era. Then, she tore her ACL and missed an entire season, leaving questions about how the sport would endure without its new prodigy who filled arenas.

It was in Bueckers’ absence that Clark and Angel Reese emerged, overflowing that void to bring even more interest to the game and push the sport to higher horizons, culminating in one of tournament history’s most epic showdowns. Last season, South Carolina’s undefeated campaign was led by coach Dawn Staley, who’s among sports’ most influential figures. The Gamecocks were tested by Clark’s dazzling displays, drawing viewership ratings that dwarfed even 2023’s high standards.

When Bueckers was out, Clark and Reese answered. Bueckers had done the same after Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu went to the WNBA. And fans were similarly skeptical about a lack of star power when Maya Moore graduated from UConn.

The women’s game has proved time and again — especially in these last few seasons — that it will produce. Luminaries will emerge and captivate basketball fans.

Perhaps the answer is not as obvious as it was a week ago, when the nation’s best player was leading a resurgent program with a national following and instant recognition on a must-see journey.

Similar to the reactions Clark, Moore and others before them inspired, coaches were simultaneously vexed trying to stop them but appreciative to what they did for the game. Sometimes, it’s easier to see the growth from within.

If there’s a coach who can attest to the value of players such as Watkins and their impact on the sport, it’s UConn’s Geno Auriemma. He has seen more phenoms up close than anyone else, many who became so beloved they could be referenced by their first names (or initials) alone: Sue, Dee, Maya, Stewie.

When the ESPN broadcast wrapped its coverage Monday from UConn’s second-round win after Bueckers scored 34 points, Auriemma sat courtside in Storrs for an interview. He was asked to answer quickly so the broadcast could flip to the USC-Mississippi State game starting on the West Coast.

“Oh, man, get off me right now, let’s get to her. I want to watch her play,” Auriemma said with a smile. “Here comes JuJu. Give me some JuJu! … Over to you, JuJu, take over!”

Geno counting down the broadcast and then tossing it to JuJu telling her to “takeover” >>>> https://t.co/ErmNJNrp5d pic.twitter.com/A2stO3eH2A

— Tyler DeLuca (@TylerDeLuca) March 25, 2025

Coaches respect great players; game respects game. (If only the latter had some mercy for knees.)

So what next? Who now?

That’s what the next two weeks will decide. But if the past tells us anything, it’s that the women’s tournament will deliver. The most elite talent is still in the game. Every No. 1 seed (UCLA, South Carolina, USC and Texas), 2 seed (UConn, NC State, Duke and TCU) and 3 seed (Notre Dame, LSU, North Carolina and Oklahoma) is left standing. The spotlight is trained back on Bueckers, and as previous tournaments have taught us, even casual viewers will become new fans of the game’s best players. Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo, LSU’s Flau’Jae Johnson and UCLA’s Lauren Betts have been exemplary all season, and new young players are poised to surprise us.

In Spokane and Birmingham, the show goes on. Nets will be cut. New stars will be made and crowned, and more familiar stars will shoulder a heavier load.

A Watkins-less USC is not the same as it once was, nor is a Watkins-less tournament. But the best testament to Watkins’ greatness and star power is that even in her absence, the sport she’s helping to build will continue to grow.

(Photo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)