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JuJu Watkins almost became a Gamecock and now she’s back

JuJu Watkins almost became a Gamecock and now she’s back

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JuJu Watkins almost became a Gamecock and now she’s back

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The injured Southern Cal star is back in Columbia for the Women’s NCAA Tournament, watching from the bench as the program she almost joined waits one game away.

JuJu Watkins was back inside Colonial Life Arena on March 20, watching her Southern Cal teammates practice on a floor that might have been hers three years ago. She was not there to play. She was there to support a team that needs her more than ever, sitting courtside with an ACL injury that took her junior season entirely.

It is a strange and layered moment. Watkins, who tore her right knee in a second-round March Madness game roughly one year ago, is spending the 2026 Women’s NCAA Tournament as a spectator. And she is doing it in Columbia, on the campus of the program that recruited her as hard as anyone.

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Dawn Staley almost landed the top recruit in the country

When Watkins was coming out of Sierra Canyon School in Los Angeles as the No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2024, she narrowed her college decision to two schools. One was the University of Southern California, less than 15 miles from where she grew up. The other was South Carolina.

She announced her commitment live on ESPN on November 15, 2022, and chose the Trojans. Staying home and building something in Los Angeles was the deciding factor. Dawn Staley never got her.

What Staley did get was a relationship that survived the recruiting loss. The two are among the investors in Unrivaled, the 3×3 basketball league that launched in 2025 and completed its second season this year. Staley has kept in touch with Watkins and her support system since the recruitment ended, and when Watkins tore her ACL last March, Staley sent her a text. She described Watkins publicly as someone who raises the sport’s level just by competing and called her absence from the tournament a void.

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The two programs also formalized their connection with a bicoastal series called The Real SC, with games scheduled in 2025 and 2026. South Carolina won the first meeting 69-52 in Los Angeles last November. Watkins hugged Staley before that game tipped off.

Jazzy Davidson is now carrying Southern Cal’s tournament hopes

With Watkins sidelined, freshman Jazzy Davidson has become the player Southern Cal leans on. Davidson won Big Ten Freshman of the Year and is averaging 17.6 points per game. In February she dropped 32 against Ohio State, becoming the first Trojan to reach 30 points in a single game since Watkins did it in 2024.

Watkins and Davidson share a similar trajectory, and Watkins has made clear she sees herself in what her teammate is doing. She has described Davidson as someone who has handled the pressure and the spotlight without flinching. Davidson, in turn, has credited Watkins with helping her navigate the mental side of being a freshman thrust into a starring role.

Watkins told those around her that she cannot wait to play alongside Davidson and that she intends to be back. For now, she holds the lip balm and the water bottles and watches from the bench.

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What today could produce

Southern Cal enters the first round as the No. 9 seed with a 17-13 record. The Trojans face No. 8 Clemson on March 21 at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2 at Colonial Life Arena. Clemson is 21-11, back in the tournament for the first time since 2019, and led by second-year head coach Shawn Poppie, whose prior tournament experience came at Chattanooga.

On the other side of the bracket, No. 1 seed South Carolina, at 31-3, opens against No. 16 Southern the same day at 1 p.m. ET on ABC.

If the Gamecocks and Trojans both win, the two programs meet on March 23. It would be the second meeting of the season between programs that have quietly built one of the more compelling rivalries in the sport, framed by recruiting battles, a signed scheduling agreement, and a genuine mutual respect between their coaching staffs.

Watkins would be there for it in a Trojans warmup jacket, watching from the bench, in the building where she might have played in a completely different uniform.

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The recruit who chose elsewhere is still shaping South Carolina’s future

Watkins was not the only top prospect to choose Lindsay Gottlieb’s program over Staley’s. Saniyah Hall, the top-ranked recruit in the 2026 class, took an official visit to South Carolina before committing to Southern Cal. The pipeline of elite prospects picking the Trojans over the Gamecocks has become a pattern worth watching.

South Carolina is not without its own incoming talent. Jerzy Robinson, the No. 5 player in the 2026 class, is a Gamecocks commit and, in a full-circle detail, attends Sierra Canyon, the same Los Angeles high school where Watkins played before choosing USC.

The thread connecting these two programs keeps pulling tighter.

SOURCE: MARCA

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