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SPOKANE, Wash. — When Kiki Iriafen arrived at Spokane Arena Friday afternoon, fond memories of the last time she was here started to come back to her.
Three years ago at this very arena, Iriafen, then a freshman at Stanford, danced the electric slide with her teammates on a confetti-filled court after the Cardinal beat Texas to advance to the Final Four.
“I started my season in this building,” Iriafen, now a senior at USC, said. “And I kind of want to end in the same way that I started it.”
It’s wishful thinking considering the Trojans lost their best player, JuJu Watkins, earlier this week after she tore her right anterior cruciate ligament in their second-round win.
But Iriafen and the rest of the team have maintained the belief that they can still accomplish their season-long goal of winning a national championship.
“We are fighters,” Iriafen said. “So we’re just again keeping the main thing, the main thing, keeping the goal.”
The outpouring of support for Watkins and USC over the past five days has been “unbelievable.”
Coach Lindsay Gottlieb received scores of text messages from fellow coaches, including UConn’s Geno Auriemma, UCLA’s Cori Close and Notre Dame’s Niele Ivey, with words of encouragement regarding the team’s situation.
Several more people, including Candace Parker and Lindsey Harding, have offered to connect with Watkins throughout her rehabilitation journey.
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Gottlieb gave her team the day off after it punched its ticket to the Sweet 16 Monday.
The time allowed players to process their emotions and lock back in.
About 36 hours later, the Trojans reconvened and started preparing for Saturday’s game against Kansas State.
“We’ve had a lot of emotions, but none of them are doubt,” Gottlieb said. “There’s a lot of belief in our team, there’s a lot of love, obviously for JuJu and that’s ever present, we don’t need to say that. But I think that the prevailing feeling is that we can still do something together, and that’s what JuJu wants us to do.”
The pathway forward is tougher without Watkins but not impossible.
Watkins has led the Trojans this season in scoring, averaging 23.9 points on 42.6 percent shooting.
She also contributes 6.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.8 blocks per game.
It’ll take a team-wide effort to fill as much of the void left by the star’s absence.
“Nobody can replace JuJu. She’s one of one. But I think a lot of us can step up in a lot of other areas that can help our team be very successful,” Iriafen said. “I’m not trying to be bigger than who I am. … We all have the same similar sentiment: it’s just doing your role, and kind of doing that little extra thing because we do have a lot to pick up.”
The first few practices without Watkins participating have taken time to get used to. The sophomore phenom is still on the entire team’s minds 24/7.
Watkins’ departing message for the team before the Trojans boarded their flight Thursday for Spokane, Washington, was that she was “super proud” of them.
“She feels so confident in what we can do, what we can accomplish,” Iriafen said. “So we still feel her presence even though she might not be with us physically.”
