USC's women's basketball program is at a crossroads of sorts. The team was on track to be a true threat to powerhouse teams like the South Carolina Gamecocks and the UConn Huskies during last season's Elite Eight and Final Four tournament, but then disaster hit: JuJu Watkins tore her ACL and was immediately unable to play. Things got even worse for the team after Watkins announced she will not play at all during the 2025-26 season.
But the team is learning to rally, and coach Lindsay Gottlieb has new strategies, she told NBC Sports. The team has to find a way to continue on and keeping winning with or without Watkins, she explained, and that's exactly what they plan to do.
As Gottlieb noted, when people look back on Watkins' time with the program, they will hopefully acknowledge the fact that the team plans to win with her — and they plan to win without her, too. She explained, "The idea that now there’s a program that still expects to win when she’s out, and we expect to win when she comes back, that should be part of her legacy."
It's impossible to replace JuJu Watkins
Of course, Watkins is the kind of player who is nearly impossible to replace, and that's especially true when one considers that the only reason she's missing in action is she's hurt. Had Watkins planned a transfer to another program, the team could have planned for her absence. Instead, they are left figuring out how to replace an athlete who averaged 23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.4 assists last year.
Gottlieb made it clear that the no one on the team — players or coaches — is expecting any one individual to rise and recreate what makes Watkins so good, and it's not entirely clear they'd be able to do so even if they wanted to. Instead, each game will be a collaborative process, where the entire team works together to attempt to rekindle the magic that Watkins brings to each game she plays.
The team boasts a promising roster that included Kennedy Smith, a sophomore who averaged 9.5 points and 4.3 rebounds last season, as well as transfers Londynn Jones and Kara Dunn. Jones came to USC by way of UCLA, and Dunn made the jump to USC all the way from Georgia Tech.
Jazzy Davidson, the number one recruit in the country, will also make her debut with the Trojans this season.