USC HC Defends MSU Player, Says 'There Was No Intent' to Injure JuJu Watkins

USC women's basketball head coach Lindsay Gottlieb staunchly defended Mississippi State guard Chandler Prater, saying "there was no intent" for her to injure Trojans star JuJu Watkins on a play that led to her suffering a torn right ACL.

“One hundred percent no. There was no intent to injure anybody,” Gottlieb told reporters Friday, per The Athletic's Grace Raynor. “It was a physical game, but there was clearly no (ill intent). No one deserves online bullying in any realm, but certainly not a young woman in Chandler, who was trying to make a play and unfortunately our player got hurt.”

The injury occurred in the first quarter of USC's eventual 96-59 win over Mississippi State in the second round of the NCAA tournament last Tuesday. Watkins was trying to split Prater and Bulldogs guard Denim DeShields in transition en route to a bucket. Watkins and Prater got tangled up, with the defender slightly bumping the guard en route to the hoop.

Watkins fell to the floor and grabbed her right knee in pain before being helped off the court.

As noted by Sam Sklar of the Clarion Ledger, Prater has since become the victim of social media hate and backlash, to the point where she's disabled comments on recent Instagram posts. Numerous comments contain vulgar and offensive remarks.

On Friday, Gottleib made clear that USC doesn't feel Prater had any intent to hurt Watkins.

“There was nothing to me that looked like it had any intent to hurt her. That was not a USC view at all,” Gottlieb said. “We have really passionate fans and there’s a lot of love for JuJu and I understand people being sad and hurt that she’s hurt. But nobody in our camp feels like there was any type of attack on her and would not support any type of online bullying or things of that nature.

“She’s a young person that was playing basketball too, and I’m sure (she) did not want any part of a negative situation that it turned out to be.”

Prater certainly didn't look like she was trying to injure Watkins. Innocuous bumps like that happen plenty of times in basketball games. Unfortunately, a worst-case scenario occurred in the flow of a play, leading to Watkins suffering a devastating injury.

Gottleib was right to defend Prater, who is getting undeserved hate. As for Watkins, hopefully she can come back to 100 percent health as the superstar begins her rehab process.