LOS ANGELES, CA – On June 29, USC Women’s Basketball posted a cryptic Instagram video of JuJu Watkins entering the frame and sitting down facing the camera, captioned only with an eyeball emoji. Her teammates’ reactions, including GIFs of Watkins smiling and winking.
Watkins then appeared in a press conference the same afternoon, confirming her return.
While USC’s Athletics Department attempted to set parameters prior to the press conference that it would not entertain questions about Watkins’ specific participation in practices or her future plans, Watkins casually confirmed to reporters that she’s back participating in contact activities: “Being able to scrimmage again, that’s all I could ask for,” she said.
Teammate Kennedy Smith added: “She’s back like she never left.”
It’s been 15 months since Watkins left the floor five minutes into the Trojans’ NCAA Tournament Second Round Matchup against Mississippi State with a torn ACL. The recovery has been long, somewhat out of the spotlight, and now it appears complete.
“I feel great, really blessed to just be here,” Watkins told reporters. “I’ve just been working out, grinding every day, so that I could be in this position. So to see all that hard work kind of pay off right now, it’s really fulfilling. And one thing I’ve learned about myself throughout this process [is] patience has kind of been the biggest thing. Just continue to have patience for the process and do the work.”
Watkins’ head coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who has repeatedly noted the impact Watkins has had not only on the Trojans basketball program, but also on the women’s basketball community of Los Angeles over the past few years, expressed her excitement at having her star back in the rotation.
“It’s amazing to be coaching a basketball team with JuJu Watkins back on the court,” said Gottlieb. “She’s just an incredible human being, first and foremost.”
Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women’s Sports Daily
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women’s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women’s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!
Watkins, in a wisdom beyond her 20 years and with the humility that frequently oozes from her press appearances, described the year less as a setback and more as a shift in how she engaged with the game. She described her year off as an opportunity to think about how she’d play different situations on the court, what she’d do differently, and noted that she worked to “heighten her IQ” at every opportunity.
“JuJu is really a unique human being, in the way she approaches anything: challenges, her day to day,” said Gottlieb.
“To watch her take something that was so difficult and pour herself into everything that went to last year was something I’ll never forget,” she said. “I really drew a lot of inspiration from it.”
“I definitely matured so much on and off the court,” said Watkins. “I think I really just needed that year to kind of reset and try to find a different approach to the game.”
Despite her on-court absence for the 2025-2026 season, Watkins “poured in” to her team last year, a phrase used by not only Watkins, but Gottlieb, Smith, and Jazzy Davidson. Fans saw her cheering on her teammates at every juncture, active on the bench, and putting her arms around teammates during game breaks. What they didn’t see was her arranging chairs for team meetings pregame or providing counsel to Davidson, a fellow No. 1 overall recruit who shouldered a larger burden than anticipated with Watkins out. Watkins herself notes that that level of involvement was a part of her overall recovery process.
Davidson inherited a team with a huge spotlight on it as a result of Watkins’ freshman and sophomore success. Davidson attempted 17 shots per game, 16th in the NCAA, shouldering a huge amount of both the offensive and defensive load for the Trojans, a team built around star power the previous year.
Davidson finished her freshman season averaging 17.9 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 2.0 steals, and 2.0 blocks per game. She was the only Division I player, men’s or women’s, to average at least 2.0 steals and 2.0 blocks per contest. She joined Maya Moore, Cheryl Miller, Candace Parker, Watkins, and Sarah Strong as the only freshmen to record at least 500 points, 150 rebounds, 100 assists, 50 steals, and 50 blocks in a single season. She swept the National Freshman of the Year awards, much like Watkins did two years ago. But without Watkins, the team fell flat. They didn’t have the offensive power outside of Davidson to make a splash, and finished the season 9-9 in the Big Ten and 18-14 overall.
While there’s no question that having Davidson and Watkins on the floor at the same time is an opponent’s matchup nightmare – both have length, incredible scoring ability, power, and speed – the question also becomes what will happen when two incredibly high usage, star level players need to share the ball. Add in top recruit Saniyah Hall, and you have a tricky (albeit very fortunate) puzzle.
Gottlieb isn’t worried.
“All the talent we have should make everybody more efficient and make everybody’s lives a little bit easier,” said Gottlieb. “Jazzy is an incredible off-ball cutter, like she moves really well without the ball. You saw some of that last year, but she just had to carry such a heavy load that you don’t see all of it. So all of a sudden the ball’s in JuJu’s hands, or Saniyah’s hands […] and now you see, wow, when Jazzy doesn’t have three people on her, she’s cutting — you just see various aspects of peoples’ capabilities.”
Davidson was sold a program with Watkins at the center, but that isn’t what she got last year. And while she is entirely positive about her experience, she’s happy to be experiencing the initial dynamic she was hoping for.
“Just seeing [JuJu] on the court and move around, it’s really surreal to see,” said Davidson. “There was a lot of growth last season for me. Just coming in as a freshman. […] Learning to adjust and to adapt quickly was a big lesson for me.”
“I don’t think my freshman year was a typical freshman year,” Davidson added. “But I […] wouldn’t have changed it for the world. Just having that leadership with JuJu and Kara and London — they poured in to me so much, so I only hope I could do the exact same for the newcomers this year.”
Now she’ll get the chance with a fellow No. 1 recruit in Hall, who she can help adjust to the limelight the way that Watkins did for her. Hall is the third No. 1 overall recruit in four years for Gottlieb at USC, arriving behind Watkins in 2023 and Davidson in 2025.
The 6-1 guard was named MVP of the U19 FIBA Women’s World Cup, averaging 19.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.9 steals per game. What she also has, whether she knows it yet or not, is two of the best possible people to learn from, one who carried a program on her back as a freshman without flinching, and one who not only did that, but subsequently spent a year watching the game from the sideline and came back sharper for it.
“I think something that’s super special about JuJu is obviously she’s an amazing individual player, but she also elevates everybody around her,” said Davidson. “When you have someone like that on your team, that’s super special — it’s kind of an intangible that’s not very common.”
The tone in the room Monday suggested something had shifted. The Trojans spoke less like a team still finding itself and more like one that knows exactly what it has, and sees no limit to the success they can achieve.
“We really do all want to win a National Championship,” said Hall.
