JuJu Watkins injury: USC star's season ends with torn ACL after contact in Women's March Madness game

USC star JuJu Watkins suffered a torn ACL during her team's 96-59 win over No. 9 seed Mississippi State 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' top player is over.

Watkins went down during the first quarter and was writhing on the floor in pain. She needed to be carried off the floor without putting any weight on her injured leg. There were a lot of mixed emotions for the Trojans, who stepped up in her absence.

"I'm feeling a lot of emotions, obviously," coach Lindsay Gottlieb said after the game, but before finding out 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."

JuJu Watkins' ACL injury rocks USC, spoils potential clash vs. Paige Bueckers—but Trojans aren't done yet

Cameron Salerno

Just over five mintues into the game, Watkins was pushing the ball in transition when she was bumped by multiple defenders. She immediately collapsed to the ground and screamed out in pain as she grabbed at her right knee. The Trojans' medical staff briefly attended to her on the court before carrying her to the locker room. 

The officials went to the monitor to review the play, but determined that it was a common foul and did not need to be upgraded. Avery Howell, who stepped up 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's 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 entered the game with multiple minor knocks to her left hand and left ankle, which occurred during the team's first-round win over No. 16 seed UNC Greensboro, but was deemed good to go after being a full participant in practice on Sunday. 

USC entered the tournament as one of the main contenders to win the national championship thanks in large part to Watkins, who is 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 ride their home crowd and Kiki Iriafen's 36-point performance to get past an overmatched Bulldogs team, but with Watkins out for the remainder of the Big Dance, it's hard to see how they lift the trophy, especially considering they already had arguably the toughest path of any No. 1 seed. 

Up next is No. 5 seed Kansas State 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 find a way to get past the Wildcats in Spokane, but even that will be very difficult. Anything else is asking far too much without Watkins, who accounted for over 30% of the team's points this season.