JuJu Watkins winced, shaking her left hand, the collective basketball world holding its breath. The first 10 minutes of USC’s tournament debut had been disconcerting enough already. Errant passes sailed away. Makeable jumpers clanked away. And No. 16-seed North Carolina Greensboro, having promised to “shock the world,” was at the very least making life difficult on the top-seeded Trojans.
Then, their star sophomore went up for a rebound early in the second quarter and emerged from under the hoop wincing with pain, an image that would inevitably conjure thoughts of the worst possible scenario.