LOS ANGELES — On Monday, Nov. 2, JuJu Watkins will do something she hasn’t done in 589 days: play a college basketball game.
She knows there will be a ton of feelings. Nervousness, anxiety, happiness, excitement.
Most of all, extreme gratitude.
“I might get a little emotional,” the 6-foot-2 USC star said.
It all makes sense when you understand what’s happened in the past 19 months.
After suffering a torn ACL in her right knee the 2025 NCAA Tournament that not only ended a title run, but wiped out the entire 2025-26 season, Watkins is back on the court. She will lead a stacked No. 3 Southern California with national championship aspirations, all hinging on her comeback.
Typically, an injury like Watkin's raises questions. How did the recovery change
the player? Can someone so elite resemble the player they were before getting hurt? That uncertainty can eat someone alive, allowing doubt to creep in.
Watkins wasn’t immune to it. She experienced the lowest of lows with so many things out of her control, having to trust the process to get back to player who won the Wooden and Naismith Player of the Year awards in 2025.
Naturally, she isn’t the same player she was before.
Watkins is better – and everyone is about to find out. The traumatic injury that kept the acclaimed guard on the bench for all of last season could be the prelude to her best season yet.
Learning from the bench
Typically before road games, USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb likes to take some time in the locker room alone. Last season, she couldn’t do that.
Because there was Watkins. Not talking basketball or giving updates on her recovery. She was setting up the chairs for her teammates.
If she couldn’t play basketball, Watkins would do just about anything to stay involved. She wanted to help. Whether it was in the locker room or on the bench, she maintained a presence without suiting up. She joked staff were giving her jobs because she couldn’t sit still.
Probably because she was always talking to her coaches.
“She asked a lot of questions,” assistant coach Jonathan Yim said.
The bench was a foreign place for Watkins. During the 2024-25 season, she led the team with 33.9 minutes per game, playing all 40 minutes in three games and at least 38 minutes in 12 of them. While experience is priceless, when you hardly sit, you aren’t able to see the game differently.
Being forced to watch opened Watkins' eyes. In between being a supportive teammate, she was in the ears of her coaches.
“I feel like I always ask a lot of questions, whether I'm injured or not. I'm always trying to understand something, definitely a lot of questions asked,” Watkins said. “I was also very bored on the sidelines, so just trying to think of something to do. So I definitely learned a lot, and shout out to my coaches for continuing to pour into me, even though I wasn't on the floor.”
The Trojans were supposed to be in the Final Four hunt last season, with Watkins playing alongside another top recruit in Jazzy Davidson. The newcomer out of Oregon was exceptional, winning National Freshman of the Year, but a lot fell on her shoulders as USC went 18-14. Watkins could relate.
“JuJu was always the first one to grab her and talk to her ... and say like, ‘Hey, I know what you're kind of feeling,’ I think that that's such an advantage for us to have,” Yim said. “JuJu was able to find her voice in that way.”
Watkins said of all her seasons at USC, the one she didn’t play in was the best in terms of leadership. In the past, she led by example. By vocally stepping up, watching and learning more about the game – all while sitting down – it “will definitely help translate to when I'm back.”
The intensity of JuJu Watkins fuels comeback
"Hey, you're fine. We know who you are. We know what you're capable of doing. Take a deep breath. You're gonna be OK.”
USC assistant coach Willnet Crockett kept trying to calm Watkins down, reassuring her with affirmations in her most anxious moments. Once Watkins was finally cleared for basketball activities, it was like she was trying to prove she was ready to play right away.
If you ask people to describe Watkins in one word, intense will probably come up. There’s no taking the foot off the gas pedal with Watkins, including in her return to the court.
“Juju was probably intense eating Cheerios,” USC assistant coach Beth Burns said. “Like she would want to eat every one before anyone else at the table.”
Burns recalled seeing Watkins working on stationary ball handling with an intensity she had never seen in her four decades of coaching.
“It's not just in basketball. It's in everything,” USC center Pania Davis said. “It's in a handshake. It's in a conversation. We have debates in the locker room and they get really intense. We're keeping it all cute, all cool, but they get intense, like really intense.
“She'll Google it to make sure.”
Watching Watkins fiercely progress to full activity was joyous. Not only did it bring happiness, but it brought out a fire.
“It's really contagious,” Davidson said. “It's hard to not get that kind of excitement and intensity in you when playing with her. I think just that ability to elevate everybody around her is huge.”
What aided Watkins in her ramp up was seeing and speaking with others that experienced the same thing.
Just a few weeks before she tore her ACL, Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving sustained the same injury. She watched his process, and seeing how he was getting back gave her hope she could do the same.
There was also Paige Bueckers, who tore her ACL while at UConn and had to sit out a season. The now Dallas Wings guard was “constantly checking up” on Watkins, encouraging her and giving advice on recovery.
USC aims for national championship
Watkins' return comes at the perfect time for USC. She will be playing alongside Davidson, veteran leader and defensive stalwart Kennedy Smith, transfers Davis and Ryann Bennett along with another crop of talented freshmen in Saniyah Hall, Sitaya Fagan and Sara Okeke.
Coming off a season where the Trojans were trying to survive and advance, there’s one goal in mind this time around: win it all.
“One of the things I've said from the beginning, and I think the players embrace it, is we're not shying away from expectations,” Gottlieb said. “We understand what the goals are, we're not afraid to say what the goals are, and at the same time, we have to approach each day as if it's about that day and and and what we're trying to achieve.”
There could also be a little extra motivation: the team across town, UCLA, just won the national championship, and the Trojans want to keep the title in the city – except in cardinal and gold.
USC should be able to gauge how plausible that is in non-conference play. The Trojans will face No. 1 South Carolina, Baylor, No. 13 Notre Dame and No. 4 Duke before the loaded Big Ten slate arrives.
How Watkins is eased onto the court is worth monitoring. Gottlieb said she is going to be “very intentional with getting her what she needs,” seeing how it goes and listening to the medical team on any minutes restrictions.
Don’t let that make you question if Watkins can match or succeed her level of play.
“She's stronger, faster, in her best shape ever because of the way she approached the work,” Gottlieb said.
So, what is the secret to Watkins?
There has to be something to explain why the former Wooden Award winner can be out for over a year, and is looking better than before her injury. Maybe there really are superpowers in her signature bun. Maybe it’s just innate talent emerging.
Or, maybe it's not that deep.
“There ain't no secret,” Burns said. “It's work, it's work and focus. They say all the great ones have a screw loose. I like to say you got to be odd to be No. 1, right? You got to separate. You got to make choices. Everybody has the same choices.
“Her choice is to be elite in every facet of her life. We are all fortunate to be around it.”
The emotions are bound to show up in the first game vs. UNLV on Monday (4 p.m. ET, CBSSN). Watkins is a much different person than the last time everyone saw her play – but that fire that made her a star remains.
“I still want to win,” she said. “It's been so long since I played, but I think coming back, my intention is the same. I haven't lost my confidence. I haven't lost my attention to detail.
“Everything's the same. It's just I've been out for a minute, so I'm just gonna continue to carry that intensity to the game.”
After 589 days, Watkins is back.
“When the ball is thrown up,” Crockett said. “She's gonna be ready.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: JuJu Watkins is back after 589 days. Why USC says she’s even better now
