USC girls’s basketball star JuJu Watkins will miss the upcoming school basketball season as she recovers from the intense knee harm she sustained through the NCAA event in March.
Watkins mentioned in an announcement on social media that she deliberate to take the 2025-26 season to “totally give attention to persevering with to get better so I can come again to the sport I really like.”
“The previous few months have been stuffed with lots of therapeutic, relaxation and reflection,” Watkins mentioned in an announcement. “Recovering from this harm hasn’t been straightforward, and I need to say thanks — your love, assist and type phrases have actually lifted me up throughout one of the vital difficult instances in my life.”
Watkins was within the midst of a stellar sophomore season when her knee buckled on a breakaway through the second spherical of the NCAA event. The harm proved to be a devastating blow to USC’s title hopes, because the Trojans finally misplaced within the Elite Eight to Connecticut.
There was a glimmer of hope that Watkins would possibly have the ability to return for a possible postseason run in March 2026, a full yr after her harm. Two orthopedic surgeons instructed The Instances on the time that she’d require upwards of 12 months to get better.
“There’s going to be lots of variations from individual to individual in that restoration course of,” mentioned Dr. Gabriella Ode, an orthopedic surgeon who serves because the crew doctor for the New York Liberty. “There’s nothing improper even with a 12-month restoration. I need to be very express about that. There are lots of individuals who it takes 12 months.”
Any hypothesis that Watkins would possibly return before that ended Sunday, greater than a month earlier than the beginning of the ladies’s school basketball season.
USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb mentioned in an announcement that this system would “totally assist her choice to give attention to restoration this season.”
“Whereas we will definitely miss her impression on the court docket, she continues to play a significant position in our program as a frontrunner and teammate. The power and maturity she has proven via this course of is a mirrored image of who she is.”
Her impression gained’t be simply changed. However the arrival of one other prime prospect, Jazzy Davidson, ought to assist fill a number of the void.
“Nobody is filling JuJu’s footwear,” Gottlieb mentioned earlier this month. “These are distinctive footwear. However the truth that Jazzy can step into our program and already simply make a extremely distinctive and unbelievable impression on everyone is fairly wild. She’s actually, actually good.”
In two seasons at USC, Watkins has been nothing wanting a phenomenon, each on and off the court docket.
A Compton native, Watkins arrived at USC in 2023 intent on serving to construct this system again up, and inside one season had helped flip the Trojans into nationwide title contenders. As a sophomore, she gained the Picket Award, the Naismith Trophy, Massive Ten Participant of the Yr and have become the primary USC participant ever named the Related Press participant of the yr. She additionally powered USC to a Massive Ten title in its first season within the convention, all whereas changing into the quickest Trojan ever to 1,000 profession factors, a mark that she surpassed early in her sophomore yr.
Upon her return as a senior, Watkins technically would nonetheless have two years of eligibility remaining. However the Trojan celebrity is sort of sure to declare for the WNBA draft when she’s first eligible in 2027.
