“Unbelievable”: USC Coach Voices Thoughts Over JuJu Watkins’ Growth Despite Suffering Season-Ending Injury

With the USC Women’s basketball team chasing its first NCAA Final Fours appearance in four decades, the hype around JuJu Watkins continues to build as the senior guard nears her return, having suffered an ACL tear back in March 2025 that kept her sidelined for more than 570 days. USC women’s basketball head coach Lindsay Gottlieb recently expressed her thoughts on Watkins and the impact she has had on the USC basketball community.

“You know, she came into our gym in the summer, you know, for freshman year; she was 17 years old. I get to see her in a growth from 17 to 21 like I do with everyone, but with her, you add this new fame that came the way that she’s impacted not just the USC community, but the LA community and basketball nationally,” said Gottlieb on the Flagrant and Funny podcast.

“And then you add dealing with this huge injury in the middle of it. To see her growth has been unbelievable. She’s always been an unbelievable teammate, very humble. And she’s always been a really hard worker,” she added.

Gottlieb insists that rather than the injury slowing Watkins down, it has only made her more mindful of her training and processes.

“I think what the injury has done is made her much more intentional about her body and the rep, because all you could do before she could play again was the weight room or static shooting,” said Gottlieb. “And so she’s become more intentional. She always carries the weight of the world, but a year to not play, and so pouring into her teammates and growing, you know, in every way that she could. So now we have a year in which I think all the other young women on our team want to win for her.”

Last season, despite Watkins being out with injury, USC made it all the way to the Elite Eight. However, they were knocked out by the UConn Huskies (78-64) for the second consecutive season. Now that Watkins is nearing her return, Gottlieb believes that winning a title would be a necessary cherry on the cake for Watkins’ collegiate career and the team.

“Her legacy is cemented, I think, but for all of us to add champion to that would mean a lot to all of us. When she does go to the W, she will be, I think, better than advertised,” Gottlieb said.

For any athlete, injury-induced rest periods can make them feel helpless. So as JuJu Watkins prepares her comeback, a wave of emotions has grabbed her ahead of the first exhibition game back in the Galen Center on Oct. 25 against the University of California, Berkeley.

“Very emotional. I mean it’s been so long since I’ve been on the court in Galen, so just being able to feel all that and feel the environment,” Watkins said (via USC Annenberg Media). “I think that’ll definitely bring a lot of emotions out of me.”

USC will open its Big Ten slate on the road, squaring off against Washington on Dec. 5. After a brief break for the holidays, it will resume its schedule against Wisconsin on Dec. 29 and will face Northwestern and Nebraska for its initial home games of 2027.

USC will host Michigan on Jan. 30 and Illinois on Feb. 2 before traveling to Westwood on Feb. 7 for the season’s first Crosstown Showdown against archrival UCLA.

With Watkins expected to be back in the fold and having stars like Jazzy Davidson and Kennedy Smith, USC tips off 2026–27 as a bona fide national title contender. The goal is clear: get the program’s first NCAA championship since 1984. Guard Rian Forestier also echoed a similar sentiment.

“I think we’re super competitive, but we also love each other so much, and I think that’s so special to have on a team, and I think we genuinely want the best for each other, but we’re willing to do whatever to win,” Forestier said.

USC fans will hope that Watkins will remain healthy this season. As Cari Champion, co-host of the “Flagrant and Funny” podcast, drew comparisons between Watkins and Olivia Miles, who won WNBA Rookie of the Year this season and even finished second in the MVP rankings, great things are expected from the Sierra Canyon graduate.

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