The standout player of the Women’s Basketball Tournament goes down in heartbreaking fashion.
USC star and California native JuJu Watkins suffered a devasting torn ACL during her team’s decisive 96-59 win over No. 9 seed Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs in the second round of the 2025 Women’s NCAA Tournament, the school announced. The injury will require surgery, meaning the season for the Trojans’ best player is over.
Watkins went down in a heap in the first quarter and was flailing on the floor in agony and pain. She needed to be carried off the floor without bearing any weight or pressure on her severely injured leg. There were a ton of mixed emotions for the Trojans, who stepped up and came to the rescue in their leader’s absence.
“I’m feeling a lot of emotions, obviously,” coach Lindsay Gottlieb said after the game, but prior to finding out the worst-case scenario with 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 minutes into the contest, Watkins was pushing the ball in transition when she was side swiped by multiple defenders. She immediately collapsed to the ground and screamed out in pain as she clutched at her right knee. The Trojans’ medical personal briefly attended to her on the court before carrying her to the locker room.
The officials went to the monitor to review the play for any hostile acts or flagrant foul but determined that it was a common foul and did not need to be upgraded. Avery Howell, who stepped up and played a crucial role with 18 points off the bench, took the free throws for Watkins.
“We don’t play to hurt; we play to compete and that’s just an unfortunate situation. There was no harm, and I hope us as a society, I know social media can be ugly, that you understand that the other lady that was involved that’s on my team is a woman of class,” Mississippi State coach Sam Purcell said after the game.
“She comes from a family too of loving parents, I’m sure she is remorseful and obviously didn’t want to have that happen. I hope that we understand as a society that it was a thoughtful apology and don’t take it further than it needs to. On behalf of the Bulldogs, again, we’re praying for her recovery because she’s the ultimate competitor and we want to see her back on that court.”
Watkins came into the game with multiple minor knicks to her left hand and left ankle, which occurred during the team’s first-round win over No. 16 seed UNC Greensboro but was determined to be good to go after being a full participant in practice on Sunday.
USC entered the tournament with high expectations as one of the favorites to win the national championship thanks in large part to Watkins, who is doing everything, 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 depend on their raucous home crowd and Kiki Iriafen’s 36-point effort to get past an overmatched Bulldogs team, but with Watkins out for the remainder of March Madness, it is nearly impossible to fathom them cutting down the nets and lifting the trophy, especially considering they already had arguably the toughest path of any No. 1 seed.
Up next is No. 5 seed the Kansas State Wildcats in the Sweet 16 on Saturday, and if the tournament goes chalk, beyond that would be No. 2 UConn, No. 1 UCLA and No. 1 South Carolina. Perhaps they will find a way to get past the Wildcats in Spokane, but even that will be daunting. Anything else is asking far too much without Watkins, was responsible for over 30% of the team’s points this season.
