USC Coach Admits Uncertainty About JuJu Watkins Return Timeline After Loss to UConn
The USC Trojans women's basketball team lost to UConn in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year on March 31, as they suffered a 78-64 defeat to the Huskies.
This loss might have been a more bitter pill to swallow than last year, if only because their success during the 2023-24 campaign was largely unexpected within the women's basketball community. This season, they entered the year as national championship contenders.
A core reason for this belief in USC was owed to star guard JuJu Watkins. However, once Watkins went down with a torn ACL during her team's second-round NCAA Tournament game on March 24, the team's title hopes for this season suffered a critical blow.
And USC's Watkins-related woes don't end with this Elite Eight loss. The sophomore still needs to get surgery and can be expected to miss approximately 9 to 14 months before she's back to full strength. That would mean she's out for most of next season, too.
Trojans head coach Lindsay Gottlieb addressed Watkins' future when speaking to ESPN after Monday's defeat.
"We don't know what JuJu will do. Will she take the whole year and redshirt? Will she try to come back at some point," Gottlieb said, per an article from ESPN's Kendra Andrews. "Those aren't conversations for right now, but I do think we will dive into how do we stay an elite team regardless of those circumstances?"
"We will have time to figure out how to be great, even if JuJu isn't out there," she added.
USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb told ESPN she doesn’t know if JuJu Watkins will redshirt next season or try to return. What she does know is that the Trojans will “dive into how do we stay an elite team regardless of those circumstances.” https://t.co/5xFVOHC4yi
— Kendra Andrews (@kendra__andrews) April 1, 2025
Not only does Watkins have a long road to recovery ahead of her, but she also has some big decisions to make regarding her eligibility for next season.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.