USC is getting its centerpiece back, and JuJu Watkins says the long road from injury is finally starting to feel real.
Watkins met with the media at USC on Monday for the first time since the injury that wiped out her last season, and she said she has already been scrimmaging as the Trojans move through their eight-week summer session. The star guard, a two-time All-American and the 2025 Naismith Player of the Year, tore her ACL in March 2025 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Mississippi State.
“I feel really great, really blessed to be here, feeling back like myself and being able to practice with the team,” Watkins said. “It’s been a long time coming.
I’ve just been working out, grinding every day so that I could be in this position. So, to see all the hard work kind of pay off right now, it’s really fulfilling.”
Her return matters because USC spent last season trying to survive without her, and the results never matched the standard she had helped set. The Trojans finished 18-14, were bounced by Washington in the Big Ten Tournament, landed a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament and then were blown out by 40 points by South Carolina in the second round.
That was a sharp fall from the year before, when USC won the Big Ten regular season title, earned a No. 1 seed and carried national championship hopes before Watkins went down.
Coach Lindsay Gottlieb sounded almost as excited about the person as the player when talking about Watkins’ comeback.
“It’s amazing to be coaching a basketball team with JuJu Watkins,” Gottlieb said. She’s just an incredible human being, first and foremost. And to be part of the process of witnessing the work she put in as a human being, as an athlete, as a basketball player, it’s just something I think I’ll never forget.”
Watkins arrived at USC as the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2023 class after coming out of Sierra Canyon (Calif.), and Gottlieb believes the injury rehab has only sharpened her.
“Watch out in terms of her physical makeup,” Gottlieb said. “She’s stronger, faster, in her best shape ever because of the way she approached the work and then the mental side right of it, right? The talks about basketball, what she’s seeing that you can’t possibly see when you’re on the floor, being JuJu.
“She had to take a different route. All of it was something you had to be there to really see it. I’m grateful that she’s back now, but I think the work she put in is something that is going to speak volume.”
Watkins also had help along the way from Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers, who knows the ACL recovery path well after her own tear before the start of her third season at UConn. Bueckers returned the next season, helped the Huskies reach the Final Four and then finished the job by winning a national championship in her final year.
“Paige was a big person for me,” Watkins said. “She was constantly checking up on me. Send me texts, just encouraging me, so I really appreciate that.”
Now Watkins is back in the mix with sophomore guard Jazzy Davidson, another No. 1 overall recruit, and USC has a promising duo to build around. Davidson had a huge freshman season, leading the Trojans in points, assists, rebounds, blocks and steals per game while earning Freshman of the Year honors.
Gottlieb said the connection between the two guards developed naturally, with Watkins understanding what Davidson had gone through in her own way.
“Her relationship with Jazzy I think is something that just grew organically,” Gottlieb said. “But JuJu was acutely aware of the fact that you can’t know what it likes to be going through what Jazzy went through unless you’re someone like JuJu who handled that as well. She made sure to pour into that relationship and that was something pretty neat to see as well.”
Davidson, for her part, made it clear what Watkins brings when she’s on the floor.
“She’s an amazing individual player, but she also elevated everybody around her,” Davidson said. “I think where you have someone like that on your team, it’s super special and it’s kind of an intangible.”
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