USC star JuJu Watkins suffered a torn ACL during her team’s 96-59 win over No. 9 seed Mississippi State in the second round of the 2025 Women’s NCAA Tournament, the school has announced. The injury will require surgery, meaning the season for the Trojans’ top player is over.
Watkins went down during the first quarter and never returned to the bench. There were a lot of mixed emotions for the Trojans, who stepped up in her absence.
“I’m feeling a lot of emotions, obviously,” head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said after the game, but before finding out Watkins diagnosis.
“But the biggest one is pride. What a performance by this group. When you throw a bunch of talented people on a team, it doesn’t become a team until you work through some things. I always thought throughout the year that if we had something we had to work on it would be when things didn’t go right right away, we sometimes stressed out.
“And how about this. Something didn’t go right for us,” Gottlieb said. “You never want anyone to go down, especially someone like JuJu that we all lean on in so many ways. But this team rallied. They rallied for her, they rallied for each other, our fans had our back. I’m just really proud and I think we showed what kind of team we are.”
Just over five mintues into the game, Watkins was pushing the ball in transition when she was bumped by multiple defenders. She immediately collapsed to the ground and screamed out in pain as she grabbed at her right knee. The Trojans’ medical staff briefly attended to her on the court before carrying her to the locker room.
The officials went to the monitor to review the play, but determined that it was a common foul and did not need to be upgraded. Avery Howell, who stepped up with 18 points off the bench, took the free throws for Watkins.
Watkins entered the game with multiple minor knocks to her left hand and left ankle, which occurred during the team’s first-round win over No. 16 seed UNC Greensboro, but was deemed good to go after being a full participant in practice on Sunday.
Without a diagnosis, it’s impossible to say when or if Watkins could return to the court this season, but the scene at the Galen Center was certainly worrisome.
USC entered the tournament as one of the main contenders to win the national championship thanks in large part to Watkins, who is averaging 24.6 points, seven rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.8 blocks, and will likely be named Naismith Player of the Year later this spring.
The Trojans were able to ride their home crowd and Kiki Iriafen’s 36-point performance to get past an overmatched Bulldogs team, but if Watkins is out for the remainder of Big Dance, it’s hard to see how they could lift the trophy.
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