Bad news here, though, for the women.

It seems it was rather dramatic and emotional when JuJu Watkins went down with a serious injury in front of the hometown fans on Monday night. Out of the tournament with a knee injury, she is a significant loss to the Trojans.

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Why? Because of her star power.

USC was able to put away Mississippi State handily, 96-59. It's not as if Watkins was the only star on the team, but it will be interesting to see if and how they come together to fill the void left by Watkins.

JuJu Watkins tears ACL. Man, this sucks huge balloons.

Sorry, didn't know Deja posted about this already

It is even worse because she will probably miss her junior year as well

She was arguably the best player in women's CBB as a sophomore.

This Cooper Flagg seems to be the real deal. A freshman, I read someplace else that he's one and done at Duke, headed to the NBA draft.

He won both of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association awards for National Player of the Year and Freshman Player of the Year, but yesterday he demonstrated in the clutch with a 30 points on nine-of-19 shooting, seven assists, six rebounds, three blocks and one steal in a close win over Arizona.

To say that Duke would not be in the Elite Eight now without him would be an understatement.

Cooper Flagg sends Duke to Elite Eight with all-around performance to remember vs. Arizona

The Maine Event as a nickname for a basketball player from Newport, Maine is pretty awesome, in re Cooper Flagg

One writer called this "the most excellent outcome possible" for the men's Elite Eight "with a No. 1 vs. a No. 2, a No. 1 vs. a No. 2, a No. 1 vs. a No. 2 and a No. 1 vs. a No. 3 . . . the best teams playing each other at the most important time."

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It's shaping up to be the same situation in the women's tournament. We will know later today.

No cinderellas & the SEC invitational has made this the most unwatchable tourney for me. For the 1st time, I didn't watch a single Sweet 16 game.

Yes indeed.

UPSET = Any lower seed winning
BIG UPSET = Upset in which the teams are more than four seeds apart
CLOSE GAME = Any game decided by single digits or in OT
BLOWOUT = Any game decided by 20+ points

Well, you are not going to be thrilled with the men's Final Four, for sure! All number 1 seeds:

I'm not.

CONN CHRIS, the march of the Lady Huskies has been inexorable! One wonders, though, whether there would have been a different outcome tonight had JuJu Watkins not suffered her injury. (Audience member sign: "JuJu, you can have my ACL!")

Their 24th appearance in the Final Four. Although, they find themselves to be the technical underdogs in this group of otherwise #1 seeds:

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Well, looking at that array of teams, I must follow my regional rooting instincts and pull for UCONN the rest of the way. Which may doom them altogether. :(

That Watkins injury was terrible. I hope that she can play again. Bueckers tore an ACL and lost the 22-23 season but seems to have recovered well.

Basketball this year has had more chalk than a police mass murder scene.

UPSET = Any lower seed winning
BIG UPSET = Upset in which the teams are more than four seeds apart
CLOSE GAME = Any game decided by single digits or in OT
BLOWOUT = Any game decided by 20+ points

This is the hill I'm going to die on, but IMO, it is much more unusual that we basically never get four 1 seeds in the Final Four, and that come next year's tourney, it will go back to having more of the upsets people want to see. I'll probably be wrong, but...

When was the last time four number 1 seeds were in the final four?

2008 on the men's side

2018 on the women's side

It will be interesting to watch how paying college athletes will change the nature of their sports, sometimes in unexpected ways.

Here, a basketball coach was persuaded to remain with his current team, not only by a salary hike but also by a boost to his "NIL budget."

Didn't the women's side have all four #1 seeds make it every year for quite some time? I think that streak broke sometime 15-20 years ago. Or am I thinking of the finals?