The stage was set for No. 1 USC star JuJu Watkins to etch her name in March Madness folklore with a signature tournament run this year. However, plans came screeching to a halt when the 19-year-old tore her ACL on Monday after landing awkwardly in the first quarter of her school’s 95-59 second-round win over No. 9 Mississippi State.
Watkins was on a Caitlin Clark-like trajectory, having already earned spots on two consecutive First-team All-American squads in her two college basketball seasons. Now, she’ll miss the remainder of the tournament and likely the start of next year as she rehabs.
Clark, the face of women’s college basketball as recently as last year, sent out a warm message of support for the injured Watkins;
“Sending all my thoughts and prayers to JuJu,” Clark tweeted to her nearly 500,000 followers on X.. “Kid will come back stronger than ever,” she added with a heart emoji.
Watkins averaged 23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.4 assists this year for the 30-3 Trojans and was the presumptive favorite to capture the AP Basketball Player of the Year.
She’s scored 1,709 points through her first two years with USC. Clark scored 1,662 and eventually set the all-time college basketball scoring record (regardless of gender).
“I’d be lying if I told you that I wasn’t rattled seeing JuJu on the floor crying,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said postgame. “This is a human game, and so I obviously tried my best to be what I need to be for the team, but internally it’s a lot.”
“Obviously, just heartbroken if there’s a serious injury for JuJu, but at the same time, I hope she can at some point see just the significance that she has here that goes so far beyond just her talent and abilities,” Gottlieb continued. “I mean, that’s really what is generational about it, the way she’s galvanized everyone.”
In her absence, 2025 Third-team All-American Kiki Iriafen stepped up and scored 36 points on 16/22 shooting in 31 shooting. She’ll prove vital for the Trojans for the rest of the tournament.
“We didn’t want to let her down,” Iriafen said postgame. “We just want to keep dancing, so whatever it takes is what I wanted to do. I think it just shows our toughness.”
Gottlieb is confident that her team will be able to rally. “We know that we’ve got no punks in our locker room, that we have a team that’s going to step up,” she said. “This team rallied, they rallied for [Watkins], they rallied for each other.”
