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Message: [QUOTE="Dugway, post: 5235180, member: 13446"] One of the things that JuJu does very well is she creates contact during her shooting motion. As she finishes, she plays into the defender. Often, she gets the basket plus a free throw, and worst-case scenario she just gets free throws. She scores a ton of points because of all those free throws, and it puts the defender into foul trouble quicker. She is very effective at this! To me, it looks like she was racing for the layup at full speed, the defender was stride for stride, was between her and the hoop and neither was going to yield. The defender could have just let her have the layup, but that is not going to happen this early into the game with fouls to give, and your season on the line. Just the same, Watkins could have turned back and passed the ball to a trailing player. But turning back is absolutely not what we are going to see out of JuJu, ever! Pressing the defense hard is what she does, she is not only looking for the score in that situation but an added free throw as well, this is why she is as great as she is! Unfortunately, playing into contract also comes with some degree of risk. It’s hard to watch and the outcome is gruesome for certain. For all the Trojan fans booing, I recognize that this is your star and there is a lot of emotion. There is no worse possible outcome or timing for that injury to have occurred, and I am sincerely sorry that this happened. This year’s tournament field has certainly lost one of the best players. This however was not a dirty play by the defender or that MSU team. To me it appears to be an unfortunate result of an extremely aggressive player purposefully running right into the defense’s kitchen with the idea that at worst it would draw contact and a whistle. God bless you JuJu Watkins, the ACL injury is horrible but great athletes heal from it and recover 100% every single year. Keep your head up, you will recover from this as well. [/QUOTE]

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