March Madness winners, losers from Monday: JuJu Watkins, Paige Bueckers steal spotlight

The Sweet 16 for the women's NCAA Tournament is set, but if we’re being honest it’s setting up to be more spicy than sweet. 

Caitlin Clark and Iowa are still on a collision course with the team that beat them in the title game last year, LSU … provided the Tigers can get past LSU. Stanford didn’t look sharp in its second-round game — does that mean NC State can fly across the country and pull the upset? Is UConn’s Paige Bueckers on a mission or is she on a mission? 

Three newcomers — USC’s JuJu Watkins, Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and Texas’ Madison Booker — have all led their teams the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. Can any of them get to the third? 

And can anyone beat South Carolina? Can anyone even play with the Gamecocks? After the way they rolled through the Columbia regional, we’re not so sure. South Carolina was the favorite last year before falling to Iowa in the semifinals. They still seem mad about it, and they’re taking it out on anyone and everyone in the bracket. 

We have so many questions and until games tip off again Friday, too few answers. Until then, here are Monday’s winners and losers.

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WINNERS

Gonzaga

In a tournament dominated by Power Six programs, the Zags are the only mid-major still dancing. But at this point, maybe it’s time to just consider them a powerhouse in their own right, especially after they dispatched Utah, 77-66, to earn a trip to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2015.

Gonzaga has been elite all season, and played like it, especially the second quarter, exploding for 24 points.The Truong twins, guards Kayleigh and Kaylynne, combined for 35 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, and five Zags scored nine points or more. Gonzaga also shot 48% from the field (24-of-50) and 55% from 3 (12-of-22).

Holding spray

JuJu Watkins, the best freshman in women’s basketball, is known for a few things: One of the prettiest pull-ups you’ve ever seen, sneaky good defensive plays, leading USC back to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1994 after scoring 28 points and snagging 11 rebounds in the Trojans’ 73-55 win over Kansas.

And then there’s her signature: a perfectly placed bun that never moves during games. A brand ambassador for Mielle, Watkins quipped at the Pac-12 conference tournament that she credits “holding spray” for the bun never budging, no matter how physical it gets on the floor. The “JuJu bun,” as it’s known around the Galen Center, can be found on the Trojans’ first team All-American, tons of little girls who love to cheer for No. 12 as well as … Joel Embiid?

Gabbie Marshall, Iowa

Or should that be Gabbie “Marchall” given the 5-foot-8 guard’s penchant for big blocks in big moments? 

Caitlin Clark rightfully gets most of the attention — she scored 32 in Iowa’s closer-than-the-score-indicates 64-54 win over West Virginia — but it was Marshall’s clutch block of a West Virginia 3 with 2:12 to play and the game tied 52-52 that helped the Hawkeyes seal it. After Iowa grabbed the ball and raced to the other end for a score, the Hawkeyes wouldn’t trail again. 

Marshall, a senior for the top-seeded Hawkeyes, scored just four points but was clutch defensively, also nabbing three steals. 

“That’s one thing I always focus on,” Marshall said of her defense. “I didn’t score a single point tonight, but I’m focused on the team and what we have to do to win.”

Aziaha James, NC State

The stat line for N.C. State’s junior guard is impressive enough on its own. Team highs in both points (22) and assists (seven), along with three rebounds and two steals. But it’s when James exerted herself that was so critical, and is the reason the Wolfpack are into the Sweet 16.

N.C. State had so thoroughly dominated the second quarter against Tennessee that the game was verging into blowout territory. When Mimi Collins made a putback on the first possession of the third quarter, it gave the Wolfpack a 20-point lead. 

But Tennessee clawed all the way back, getting within 2 points with 4:16 left in the fourth quarter. That’s when James took matters into her own hands. She scored on a jumper and made a 3-pointer on consecutive possessions to give NC State breathing room. After a 3 by Jewel Spear pared the Wolfpack’s lead back to 4, James was fouled and made both free throws with 43 seconds left to effectively seal what was a 79-72 win.

LOSERS

Anyone trying to stop Hannah Hidalgo 

You have our sympathies. Slowing down Hannah Hidalgo, the speedy freshman from Notre Dame who made a strong case for national freshman of the year this season, is a brutally hard task. Stopping her all together? Well that’s dang near impossible. Just as the Rebels. In Notre Dame’s 71-56 win over Ole Miss the rookie scored 19 points, grabbed four rebounds, handed out four assists and, in her signature move, snagged four steals. She’ll next match up against another fast freshman in Oregon State point guard Donovyn Hunter, as the second-seeded Irish meet the third-seeded Beavers in Albany on Friday. 

Us, for not talking about Paige Bueckers enough

Pity the fools (us, we’re talking about us here) who got so caught up in the Caitlin Clark hype, we spent most of the season not talking about the No. 1 ranked player in the 2020 class. In our defense, Bueckers missed all of the 2022-23 season with an injury, and no one was quite sure how she’d come back this season.

Well, lesson learned. After not playing in an NCAA tournament game for 720 days, Bueckers has been a tear in the Huskies’ first two wins. Monday in UConn’s 72-64 win over Syracuse, which sent the Huskies to the Sweet 16, Bueckers had 32 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, four steals and a block. 

“We have the best player in America,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “In this world of analytics, the numbers say she is … and everyone that watched knows it.”