College basketball fans were devastated when USC star JuJu Watkins suffered a season-ending and potentially career-altering torn ACL injury in the team’s Round of 32 matchup on Monday. But according to USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb, no player on Mississippi State is to blame for the freak injury.
Most rational sports fans would likely agree with Gottlieb in the fact that Watkins’ injury could happen to any player at any time.
Unfortunately, a select number of sports fans have blamed Mississippi State player Chandler Prater for Watkins’ injury, as she was defending Watkins at the time of the injury.
I don’t like the buckle of the right knee with the foot strikes the ground for Juju Watkins
Fear would be for an ACL tear pic.twitter.com/FCbaHedql5
— Dr. Evan Jeffries, DPT (@GameInjuryDoc) March 25, 2025
The criticism headed towards Prater has become so severe that she has actually opted to disable her personal Instagram page after receiving some incredibly harsh insults in her direction.
Obviously, Lindsey Gottlieb was crushed, like everyone else, about Watkins’ injury when speaking with reporters on Friday. But she still made it a point to admonish those who are blaming Prater for her injury.
“One hundred percent no. There was no intent to injure anybody,” said Gottlieb ahead of the team’s Sweet 16 matchup against Kansas State. “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.”
Gottlieb could just as easily be upset like others. But instead, she wants to do her part in making sure that Prater stops receiving more negative comments, which is certainly a credit to her character.
Unfortunately for Gottlieb, none of this changes the fact of the matter of what her team is now up against in the Sweet 16. On Saturday, USC will face off against No. 5-seeded Kansas State without a player like Watkins, who played a monumental role in getting to this point.
So it should certainly be interesting to see how Gottlieb is able to get her team to show up for this game, given the circumstances.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.