USC women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb is defending Chandler Prater, the Mississippi State player guarding JuJu Watkins at the time of her injury.
Speaking about Prater, Gottlieb made it clear that not only does she not want anyone to bully Prater because of Watkins’ injury but she also didn’t see anything wrong with the play.
“There was nothing to me that looked like it had any intent to hurt her. … I mean, that’s not a USC view at all,” Gottlieb said, per Kendra Andrews, ESPN. “It was a physical game. … 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.”
“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,” Gottlieb added. “She’s a young person that was playing basketball too and I’m sure did not want any part of a negative situation that it turned out to be.”
The injury came early in USC’s NCAA Tournament win over Mississippi State. Following the turnover, Watkins took a pass from Kiki Iriafen and sprinted up the court, with Prater defending her. As she approached the basket, Watkins fell to the ground.
It was immediately clear that the injury was serious, as Watkins quickly grabbed her knee in obvious pain. She was eventually carried off of the court and it was later announced that she suffered a torn ACL.