March Madness is when the spotlight shines on college basketball’s biggest stars, and for a variety of reasons, most notably their phenomenal talent, the biggest stars in college basketball reside in the Women’s NCAA Tournament bracket, chief among them: USC superstar sophomore JuJu Watkins.
Watkins and UConn star and former National Player of the Year Paige Bueckers have spent the season sharing air-time in Gatorade commercials and fighting for their spot as the rightful heir to Caitlin Clark’s throne as the face of college basketball.
While they’ve both had phenomenal seasons, Watkins is the front-runner for National Player of the Year and possibly the most prominent athlete on TV this March when commercials grow tiresome with basketball on a constant loop. Watkins led the Trojans to the Big Ten title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but her rise to the top of the sport came to an abrupt halt on Monday night.
Breaking: JuJu Watkins has suffered a torn ACL in her right knee, sources tell @ShamsCharania.
— ESPN (@espn) March 25, 2025
She will undergo surgery. pic.twitter.com/gbsjjTaD0H
USC star JuJu Watkins out for season with torn ACL
Watkins played just five minutes of USC’s 96-59 second-round win over Mississippi State before suffering what appeared to be a non-contact injury on a fast-break in the first quarter. She was carried off the floor and the entire sports world immediately feared the worst.
JuJu Watkins was carried off the court and taken to the locker room after suffering an injury on this play. pic.twitter.com/zFgm8PkVnu
— ESPN (@espn) March 25, 2025
Those fears were immediately realized when nearing 2:00 a.m. ET, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Watkins would miss the remainder of the NCAA Tournament with a torn ACL in her right knee.
Watkins had a few injury scares in the first round on Saturday, a 71-25 win over 16th-seeded UNC Greensboro. She stayed in the game after he appeared to suffer a hand injury, then returned after rolling her ankle and leaving the game. It was questionable of head coach Lindsay Gottlieb to continue to play her star in a blowout, but Watkins entered the second round seemingly at 100%, and those injuries were certainly not a precursor to a freak-non-contact injury like a torn ACL.
Watkins averaged 23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.4 assists with two steals and two blocks a game this season. With the 6-foot-2 sophomore playing so well, the Trojans, while not the No. 1 overall seed in the field, were positioned as the favorites in the NCAA Tournament. After Watkins’ injury, the Trojans are +2700 to win the national championship in the FanDuel Sportsbook, the sixth-best odds. UConn with Bueckers, who suffered a devastating knee injury in December of 2021 that caused her to miss the entire 2022-23 season, have emerged as the title favorites.
With USC and UConn in Regional 4 of the bracket, all of March Madness was building towards a Watkins-Bueckers showdown in the Elite Eight, but now the sport will have to finish its season without its biggest star.