JuJu Watkins had not played a competitive game in 20 months when she walked onto the floor at the Galen Center on November 8, 2026, and finished with 32 points, 16 rebounds, six assists, and five steals. USC won 118 to 40 over Utah State. She came off with 2 minutes and 34 seconds left, and the building stood up.
Watkins, a USC guard, won the John R. Wooden Award for 2024-25 and averaged 25.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists over her first two college seasons. She tore the ACL in her right knee in a second-round NCAA tournament game against Mississippi State in 2025 and missed the entire season that followed.
Asked at Big Ten media days what those months gave her, she did not talk about her knee. “The whole process has taught me a lot of patience, patience that I didn’t even know I had within,” she said. She said she leaned on her circle, poured energy into her teammates when she could not play, and kept growing as a leader through a season in street clothes. Paige Bueckers, who lost the 2022-23 season at UConn to a torn ACL, texted her throughout.
Her coach, Lindsay Gottlieb, said Watkins is stronger, faster, and in her best shape ever, and now sees things on the floor she could not see before. With the 21 she scored against UNLV on November 2, 2026, that is 53 points in two games back, and USC is 2-0.
