USC’s JuJu Watkins is back on the preseason spotlight list.
The senior guard was named a Preseason Associated Press All-American on Thursday, Oct. 22, giving her a second straight AP preseason honor after also being recognized ahead of the 2024-25 season. Watkins joined UConn’s Sarah Strong, Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo, Texas’ Madison Booker and Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes on the team.
Watkins has also piled up more preseason recognition heading into the 2026-27 campaign, earning Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year honors along with spots on the coaches’ and media preseason All-Big Ten teams.
Her return matters because she’s coming back after missing the 2025-26 season because of injury. The Los Angeles native was at the center of the sport before that setback, sweeping the major national awards after her standout 2024-25 run by taking home the Naismith Trophy, John R. Wooden Award, USBWA Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Year award and AP National Player of the Year award.
That season, Watkins averaged 24.6 points per game and landed on the AP All-America First Team unanimously. She became just the third player in history - alongside Courtney Paris and Maya Moore - to earn first-team AP honors as both a freshman and a sophomore. Watkins also posted 3.4 assists, 2.18 steals and 1.76 blocks per game, and she enters this season ranked ninth on USC’s career scoring list with 1,709 points.
Her awards haul from 2024-25 kept growing after the season as well. Watkins was named the Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year and Big Ten Player of the Year, while also making the All-Big Ten First Team, Big Ten All-Defensive Team and Big Ten All-Tournament Team.
USC opens the 2026-27 season on Sunday, Oct. 25, when the No. 3 Women of Troy host Cal in the First Look Women’s Basketball Exhibition presented by State Farm.
Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. PT at the Galen Center.
In Other News...
USC Faces A Real Road Test As Availability Questions Loom
USC has spent the week trying to make practice feel a little less polite and a lot more like what it will encounter in Madison, using crowd noise and even Wisconsins familiar Jump Around to sharpen its edge for a trip to Camp Randall Stadium. Coaches and players have talked about the atmosphere and the need to be ready for a true road test, the kind that can expose small communication issues and test a teams composure before the first snap.
The other concern for the Trojans is the availability report, which listed 11 players in various injury statuses heading into the matchup. For a team already preparing for one of the louder environments it will see all season, those questions add another layer of uncertainty to an already tricky assignment, with USC waiting to find out how much of its roster will be available when the lights come on. [Read more 🡒]
USCs Playoff Debate Just Put 12 Years Of Missed Chances Back In Focus
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The conversation is less about rewriting the past than about what the new format might change for a program like USC going forward. An expanded playoff would not erase the seasons that slipped away, but it would give the Trojans far more room to survive the occasional stumble and still keep a path alive. For a fan base that has spent years measuring itself against a national standard, that is a meaningful shift, even if the real intrigue is how often USC would have been placed and how deep those chances might have run. [Read more 🡒]
USC Faces A Big Ten Test That Could Shape Everything
USC heads into a Big Ten road game at Wisconsin with a chance to keep building on the momentum it has carried away from home. The Trojans have already shown they can win on the road this season, and they also bring a long history of success into a matchup that has been one-sided in their favor. On paper, it is the kind of test that can tell a lot about where Lincoln Rileys team really stands as conference play deepens.
Wisconsin, meanwhile, has not been nearly as reliable when ranked opponents come to town, which adds another layer to a game that already feels important for USCs standing in the league. The matchup comes with the usual late-season stakes, a national broadcast window, and plenty of attention around how the Trojans handle another road environment. A win would only strengthen the case that this team can travel well in the Big Ten, but the setting also leaves enough intrigue to make this one worth circling well before kickoff. [Read more 🡒]