Rough Notes Guide to the Sweet Sixteen
On Juju, The Best Sideline Characters & a women's basketball fandom bracket!
First of all, and above all else: Juju Watkins.
She tore her ACL in USC’s second-round game last weekend, a crushing development both for Juju the person (who is an icon and the next generational talent in our game, leave her in all of the commercials, please) and for the communities of women’s basketball as a whole. There is something very 2025 about this horrifying twist: the reality that Juju had been so lovingly building for all of us has been instantaneously revoked. Cruelty has taken the upper hand. Now, if there is a way back to the world we long for, it will require communal fortitude, and singular defiance.
A few months ago, I was lucky to see Juju compete in what will definitely be remembered now as the career game of her sophomore season. To me, she wasn’t just a player on the court, she was a whole other planet. I wrote about that game in a post called “A Planet Named Juju” (which used to be just for paid subscribers, but I’ve opened it up.) I think the reason that Juju is a heart & soul to women’s basketball begins with a question: “Have you ever watched someone do the thing you love most with the kind of precision and magic that makes you feel like you’re watching that thing again for the very first time?” Read more from that essay here.
March Madness is back baby, and with that comes some of the most beloved characters of the season… no, not the players, the sideline characters! And you need a guide to my faves.
I’m the kind of person who obsesses about all the combinations of people I know together at my (totally hypothetical) memorial. You know what I mean? I think it’s partly because the people who witness our existence are essential to the experience itself: just as those watching from the sidelines of March Madness are as critical to its magic as anything else. Not sure that analogy works. But anyway, you need a guide to the Best Sideline Characters in this year’s NCAA women’s basketball tournament… so far.
Madison Scott’s Grandma
This woman went viral in our women’s basketball corner of the internet last weekend. And for great reason: ESPN captured her moves, which are like no other fan; grandma shimmied and stomped and howled in support of the #5 Ole Miss women’s basketball team as they toppled #4 Baylor to make it to the Sweet 16.
Turns out, this woman is named Pamela Queen, and she is one of the most important people in Madison Scott’s life. A senior who has played in more games than anyone in Lady Rebels women’s basketball history, Madison shared some of their story with Ole Miss Sports: “My grandmother, Miss Pam. Me and my mom were in foster care growing up. And Miss Pam (Queen) was very influential in my mom getting through everything she had to go through. Honestly, she became family. She has been everything I needed and more.” Very awwwwwwww.
Miss Pam is so passionate about Madison’s basketball career that she took time off work to be at the game, which I know only because it turns out Pam Queen is a Democratic Delegate in the Maryland House of Delegates, which means that Maryland Matters (“the premier source of news about politics, policy and government in Maryland”) reported about her absence from work, even posting this photo of her empty chair from the House floor:
I’m obsessed with Miss Pam and I hope she becomes the #1 ESPN darling of remaining tournament, not least of all because she’s committed to protecting abortion rights :)
Jonathan the Husky
This one comes with a tip from women’s basketball’s “deuxmoi” (millennials on Instagram get it), who is an ever-knowing-insider-information-having-gossip-master, and someone I happen to know personally. Mmhmm, for real. Anyway, it’s all about University of Connecticut mascot Jonathan the Husky (if you’re not yet familiar, the UConn’s mascot is a husky, and Jonathan is an actual real-live dog, the latest in a great lineage of Jonathans, this current pup is technically Jonathan XV), who was caught by Tik Tokers before a UConn women’s basketball game being a bad boy, see below:
According to one Tik Tok commenter who claims to have “trained him and regularly works with him in daycare,” this diva attitude is “pretty typical behavior for a Jonathan.” But what our WBB deuxmoi shared with me is the real reason they’ve uncovered about Jonathan XV’s agitated behavior, which is that he’s being forced to “date” another dog on campus: Jazmine, a canine “officer” for the UConn Police Department. Meanwhile, Jonathan (who is part of the police abolition movement, and also gay) is experiencing increased mental health decline and desperately wants to get hooked up with Archie, a UConn therapy dog & superfan of basketball player KK Arnold. Therefore, we should all demand the dissolution of Jonathan & Jazmine’s forced camaraderie and instead advocate for diverting funding from the campus police toward increased mental health services for all. Oh and here’s Archie the therapy dog getting really hype before a game:
In any case, Jonathan was well enough to attend UConn women’s basketball practices leading up the tournament, and will be cheering the team on to Tampa:
Faith Masonius
Faith is a very, very good basketball player (& a prime character in two recent Rough Notes posts: “Night of Invitations” and this, ahem, exclusive interview), and she’s currently reckoning with the end of her own collegiate basketball career after Seton Hall lost in the WBIT (a tournament for teams that don’t make it to the NCAA one.) But she’s also one half of an iconic couple with Shyanne Sellers, who is competing in the Sweet Sixteen for Maryland, Faith’s former team of five years, where yes absolutely they were girlfriends and teammates.
I’ve talked about loving Faith’s Tik Tok, which is more prolific than ever during March Madness. There, you’ll find Faith applying her makeup while confessing things like “I don’t think it’s fully hit me that I’m not a college athlete anymore, but also many tears have been shed,” and baking stuffed pasta shells for dinner to fuel Shyanne for her next victory. On Wednesday, Faith flew to Alabama for the next round of the tournament where she’s now filming solitary “hot girl walks” and working out alone.
But seriously: I’m fascinated by this moment in a women’s basketball player’s life, directly after the cliff drop of their college career ending, and it’s nuts to think that Faith is spending that time at the Sweet Sixteen. But one thing that’s clear is that Faith and Shyanne love each other very much, and their vibe, at least on Tik Tok, is full of gentleness, time lapses of Faith braiding Shy’s hair and taking hot dishes out of the oven, the tenderness of two best friends in sweatpants whose lives are about to completely change while they remain steadfast to their ride or die connection. Like there’s nothing that could keep Faith from Birmingham.
Women’s Basketball Fandom
Yes, fandom: like you, and me, and all of us! We are in the picture, too. Which is why I made a whole ass Sweet 16 Bracket of Women’s Basketball Fandom, pitting things like “having literally no idea what’s going on in the men’s tournament” against other things like “the lack of caitlin clark.” It’s really fun! You should fill it out, send it to friends, and if you wanna be the greatest of all time, you should take a screenshot of your results & send them to me or tag @roughnotes.mgs on Instagram because [real confession here] I haven’t actually figured out how to see the outcomes on the back-end of “woobox.com” (but mark my words I will be contacting customer service today.)
Okay, on to another 48 hours of madness & tears (the kind that come out of your eyes, not the injury version) & becoming constipated couch monsters!
