LOS ANGELES — After Mississippi State’s season ended against Southern California on Monday night, the Bulldogs were trying to protect one of their players.

Early in the second round contest of the women’s NCAA Tournament, USC star JuJu Watkins went down with a knee injury that turned out to be season-ending. There were Mississippi State players surrounding Watkins when she went down and let out a painful scream, but it looked like a non-contact injury.

But that’s not how everyone saw it. After a hush fell over the Galen Center as Watkins was tended to, play resumed and the Bulldogs were met with heavy boos from the crowd anytime they touched the ball, particularly toward guard Chandler Prater.

When Mississippi State’s locker room opened for postgame interviews, Prater was not available. A team representative told USA TODAY Sports she was ‘not doing well.’

‘It’s obviously an unfortunate position to be in because it was totally unintentional, and it was just a basketball play,’ junior guard Denim DeShields told USA TODAY Sports. ‘But when things happen to a star, I guess they can be seen worse than they actually are. She’ll be fine. We’ve just got to move past it and prayers to JuJu.’

However, the negative comments have already been posted on social media. Mississippi State head coach Sam Purcell offered prayers and an apology in his opening statement, but said he wasn’t aware of any backlash any of his players were receiving online when asked by a USA TODAY Sports reporter. He condemned any harmful comments or threats and reiterated his players wouldn’t try to injure a player.

‘We’re a program of class,’ Purcell said. ‘We don’t play to hurt; we play to compete. That’s just an unfortunate situation. There was no harm. And I hope us as a society, because social media can be ugly, that you understand the other lady on my team that was involved is a woman of class. She comes from a family, too, of loving parents. And I’m sure she is remorseful and obviously didn’t want to have that happen.

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‘I pray as a society that we understand it’s a thoughtful apology that we don’t take this further than it needs to. On behalf of the Bulldogs, again, we’re praying for her recovery for this next game because she’s the ultimate competitor. We want to see her back out on that court.’

The coach of Mississippi State’s biggest rival backed up the Bulldogs as well. Mississippi’s Yolett McPhee-McCuin said on social media no player tried to hurt Watkins.

‘If you’re a fan of basketball it hurt to see. I couldn’t even watch after that. But anyone that says Miss State was dirty please stop that narrative. Please and let’s pray for Ju’s recovery and healing,’ McPhee-McCuin said.

While there were some words exchanged in the postgame handshake line, there was no bad blood between the Bulldogs and Trojans by the end of the night. After his postgame press conference, Purcell offered his condolences directly to USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb and associate head coach Beth Burns. The Trojan coaches understood there was no ill intent.

Mississippi State senior Jerkaila Jordan said she was looking forward to playing against Watkins because ‘she’s one of the best’ and ‘seeing her go down was really tough.’ She offered her prayers and hopes Watkins can come back on the court as quickly as possible.

‘She’s changed the game in so many ways at such a young age,’ Jordan said. ‘You hate to see a player go down, especially someone just as great as JuJu.’

This story was updated with editing changes.

LOS ANGELES — No JuJu. Now what?

The USC basketball team faced the question Monday night. There was no choice after a gut-wrenching scene at the Galen Center in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament.

There was JuJu Watkins, USC’s star, crumpled on the court and holding her right knee in agony.

There she was getting carried off the court, along with her trademark bun and All-America skills, because she could not walk off on her own power.

There were her teammates and a crowd watching mostly in stunned silence when, with 4:43 left in the first quarter and USC leading 13-2, JuJu suffered what turned out to be a season-ending injury.

Now what?

Here’s what: No. 1 seed USC, expected to contend for a national title before losing Watkins, showed it’s too early to count them out.

The Trojans did not beat No. 5 seed Mississippi State. No, they walloped Mississippi State, 96-59, in front of a raucous crowd and advanced to the Sweet 16.

‘You never want anyone to go down, especially someone like JuJu, that we all lean on in so many ways,’ USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. ‘But this team rallied. They rallied for her. They rallied for each other.

‘Our fans had our back. I’m just really proud. I think we showed what kind of team we are.’

They are gritty. Tenacious. Skilled.

A team that had an astounding 29 assists against Mississippi State.

‘The ball was electric,’ said Kiki Iriafen, the 6-3 graduate students who led USC with 36 points. ‘We were moving that ball. We were passing that ball. That’s what makes the win so grand.

‘… I feel like this team, we’re just trying to do whatever we can to keep it going.’

Iriafen exuded passion.

There she was, speeding up and down the floor and powering her way under the basket to not only 36 points and but also nine rebounds.

 ‘Kiki, Kiki,’ chanted the crowd when she came out of the game for the final time.

There was Rayah Marshall, the 6-4 senior and USC’s defensive leader, ripping down nine rebounds and blocking four shots to go along with 12 points.

‘Rayah, Rayah,’ chanted the crowd when she came out of the game for the final time.

There was freshman guard Kayleigh Heckel, who made a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter to put USC up 84-42 and let out a roar.

The crowd roared, too.

‘We got our butt kicked by a really good team,’ Mississippi State coach Sam Purcell said. ‘I thought they played inspired when JuJu went down and this place went to another whole level.

‘And they have other really good players. When a good player goes down other players step up. I thought that’s what you saw tonight.’

Next up for the Trojans is No. 5 seed Kansas State Saturday in Spokane, Washington. Even on the road, without its home crowd to spur them, the Trojans will be a clear favorite.

A victory likely would lead USC to an Elite Eight matchup against No. 2 seed Connecticut. It would be an infinitely tougher test than Mississippi State or Kansas State.

But on Monday night, the crowd at Galen Center seemed in no mood to look ahead. Instead, the fans relished the final minutes of the route and eventually sent up a final chant.

‘We are SC! We are SC!’

Indeed, they are – and after Monday night, counting them out would be a foolish thing to do.

(This story was updated to change a gallery.)

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith says the NBA MVP race is over.

Hands down, it’s Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander unless he “falls off the map,” according to Smith who made his proclamation last week.

It’s Smith’s opinion and his vote (he is expected to have a vote this season), so he can (and does) do what he wants with both. But in an MVP race as close as this one between Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver’s Nikola Jokic, it’s premature to declare an MVP now. Plus, it’s a disservice to Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic, who are having historic seasons.

Jokic has said in previous seasons that he doesn’t care about the MVP, but there are times he does care, and this season is one of those times.

‘I will say that I think I’m playing the best basketball of my life, so if that’s enough, it’s enough,” Jokic recently told reporters. “If not, the guy deserves it. He’s really amazing.’

That’s as close to stumping for himself that Jokic is going to get, but for him to declare that after winning MVP three previous times is saying something.

Voters will have to figure out what that something is.

Here are this week’s USA TODAY Sports’ NBA MVP power rankings:

NBA MVP power rankings

5. Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell

The best player on the best team in the conference deserves recognition. The Cavaliers, who are 57-14 and just behind the Thunder for the league’s best record, would be good without Mithcell, but they wouldn’t be what they are without him. Mithcell averages 23.7 points, 4.8 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals and shoots 44% from the field, 36.7% on 3s and 82.4% on free throws. He has helped the Cavaliers to winning streaks of at least 10 games three times this season, including a 15-0 mark to start the season and a recent 16-game winning streak. Yes, they lost a little focus during a four-game losing streak last week, but they are on pace to win 60 games for just the third time in franchise history and just the first time without LeBron James on the roster. Getting Mitchell to sign a three-year extension in the summer ensured the Cavs could be in this position.

4. Celtics forward Jayson Tatum

He had been as steady as ever, scoring when necessary and distributing to his teammates when drawing extra attention from defenders. Yet, Tatum rolled his left ankle Monday night when he landed on the foot of Kings center Domantas Sabonis. Tatum told ESPN that the ankle was “just sore,” though — with Boston sitting comfortably in the No. 2 seed in the East — the team may opt to be cautious and hold him out until fully healthy. The injury, in effect, torpedoes any remote chance he had to win his first career MVP.

3. Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo

He keeps putting up monster games — in Saturday’s win against the Kings, Antetokounmpo dropped 32 points and grabbed 17 rebounds — but the Bucks have stumbled a bit recently, losing five of their past nine games. What stands out in Antetokounmpo’s game over this season and the last is increased efficiency; after hitting shots at a career-high 61.1% clip last year, Antetokounmpo is once again flirting with 60%, sitting at 59.9%.

2. Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

The model of consistency, Gilgeous-Alexander became just the seventh player in NBA history — he joined Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant — to score 20 or more points in at least 60 consecutive games. In Sunday night’s victory over the Clippers, Gilgeous-Alexander extended his streak to 64 games.

1. Nuggets center Nikola Jokić

Jokic averages 29.1 points (third in the NBA), 12.8 rebounds (third in the league) and 10.3 assists (No. 2), and if those positions hold, Jokic will become the first player in NBA history to finish in the top three in those categories in the same season. He also is on pace to become the third player in league history to average a triple-double for a full season. Add his 57.5% shooting from the field, 41.3% shooting on 3s and 80.7% mark on free throws and the Nuggets’ offensive rating is a massive 21 points per 100 possessions when he is on the court. Jokic is assembling one of the greatest offensive seasons the NBA has witnessed for a team on pace to win 50-plus games.

Former UFC fighter Cain Velasquez was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for attempted murder in a 2022 shooting in California.

The two-time UFC heavyweight champion faced 10 felony charges after engaging in a high-speed chase with a man accused of molesting Velasquez’s four-year-old son. During the chase, Velasquez fired several shots from a .40-caliber handgun into a car with Harry Goularte, hitting Goularte’s stepfather in the arm.

Velasquez pleaded no contest to all the charges.

Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of 30 years to life in prison, but Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Arthur Bocanegra issued the five-year sentence that includes time her already served. The former champ spent nearly one year in custody and nearly two years of house arrest following the incident.

Velasquez’s lawyer told NBC Bay Area she expects he will end up serving another year in prison.

‘I believe that, in some ways, justice was served today despite feeling disappointed that he is back in custody,’ attorney Renee Hessling said.

Goularte, whose mother ran the daycare where the alleged molestation happened, faces his own trial in June after pleading not guilty to one charge of lewd acts with a minor.

Velasquez’s family has filed a separate civil lawsuit against the Goularte family and their businesses.

We’re watching this evolution play out in real time, a path that was inconceivable a few short years ago.

A path that has finally reached the top of the mountain, where everything should be gold and bold and clear to see. Only it’s not.

The coach/player dynamic is rapidly changing, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

Not even the most powerful coach in college football.   

“They’re offended when you coach them,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said during a media availability following practice March 18. 

This revelation, everyone, is staggering. 

Not that today’s player has become difficult to coach. But that Smart, who comes from coaching tree of Nick Saban – the Death Star himself – admitted as much. 

There is no coach in college football with more coaching capital. No coach in college sports with more weight and more gravitas – and here’s the key – and more of a chance to ignore the tsunami of player empowerment than Smart.

And while he hasn’t given in, the fact that he’s declaring this obstacle is significant. The evolution, everyone, is quickly becoming a revolution. 

This isn’t so much about calling out players to accept coaching as it is a loss of control. There’s slippage in the player/coach dynamic, and it’s growing.

Georgia has 24 freshmen who enrolled early, and Smart said last week not one is in shape. Not one freshman is, “sustaining his reps and just flourishing.”

That led to his assessment of the rest of the team, and how the events of the past four years since the inception of NIL and free player movement have become a defining polar shift. 

“They’re not where they need to be,” Smart said. “They have to be able to receive coaching. It’s like, ‘You’re coaching me hard? Like you’re telling me I gotta play with effort?’”

For more than 100 years coaches have held the upper hand in the one-sided process of we know what’s best for you. From Junction Boys with The Bear, to Bo and Woody, to Competition Tuesdays with Pete Carroll, there was little doubt who dictated this dance.

Players for decades were void of any power, caught in a box of the NCAA owning their name, image and likeness, and penalizing them a year of precious eligibility if they dared to transfer. On top of that, there has been — and always will be — one way to get to the NFL.

Think about this new incredible reality: it was only nine years ago, in the 2015-16 school year, that the NCAA relented and allowed $5,000 stipends above the “cost of scholarship.”

Beginning this season, some players will make more than their coaches in revenue sharing and personal NIL deals. Like coaches, they’re free to transfer and move from school to school with each passing season. 

If one school doesn’t fit, the next one might. If one coach doesn’t work, if he pushes too hard and coaches with too many demands and expectations, maybe the next one won’t.

Meanwhile, the best coach in college football – with the best roster in college football, with a program that could begin every season ranked No.1 in the country – is hesitant to coach players hard and prepare them for the difficult grind ahead. 

If the coach with the overflowing budget and opulent facilities and every possible advantage can’t coach hard, who can? If the coach with the proven track record of winning championships and developing players for the NFL can’t ask more from a player, where does that leave the rest of the coaches in the sport?

Years ago I sat in Herm Edwards’ office at Arizona State, and he was trying to explain the process of not only becoming among the less than two percent of college players who make the NFL — but staying there. He spoke about elite athletes, and the rare size and strength and physical growth at nearly every position. 

“But that doesn’t mean anything if you don’t get it up here,” Edwards said, pointing at each of his temples. “If you don’t understand what it takes, and you don’t want to give everything to that preparation and get better every time you step on that field? You’re out of the league in four years or less.’

So after the seismic change of the past four years, after a spike in player empowerment has changed every possible metric in the player/coach relationship, we’ve come all the way back to home base. 

All the way back to the only card left for coaches to use, one they’ve wielded over the years with great success: without me, you can’t get to the NFL. Yet even that card has been minimized somewhat with the explosion of NIL deals. 

Some college players are making more than the end of NFL rosters, where the minimum annual salary for players is $840,000 for rookies, and $960,000 for players with one year of service.

For the elite of college football, that’s chump change. For the elite of high school football now entering college football – including a few Georgia players – that’s less than their annual salary. 

“Kids that wanna be coached don’t care what (money) they make,” Smart said. “The guys in the NFL make more than these guys, and they still wanna be coached.”

The evolution has quickly become the revolution, everyone.  

Not even the most powerful coach in college football can do anything about it. 

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.