This week, the college basketball world got confirmation that it would be without one of its greatest talents until next fall.

JuJu Watkins, USC's star guard and National Player of the Year, is sitting out the entirety of the 2025-26 season to recover from an ACL tear she suffered in the Round of 32 vs. Mississippi State. While it was safe to assume Watkins would be missing a large portion of this season to recover, there was some hope that she'd return toward postseason tournament time.

The update does give this USC season a new sense of clarity: Where can this team go without its generational star?

Lindsay Gottlieb has been USC's head coach for four seasons and has seen the team improve each year, going from a 12-16 debut season to 21-10, 29-6 and, most recently, a 31-4 campaign that ended in the Elite Eight. The 60 wins from the last two years were almost all with Watkins at the helm, with a Sweet 16 win over Kansas State post-injury and a one-game absence in 2023 as the exceptions.

That 2023 game against Long Beach State is notable considering the Beach, who finished 14-18 that season, battled the Trojans the whole way. They got it within four with 2:20 to go before USC eventually pulled through for a 85-77 win behind a career-high 36 points from McKenzie Forbes.

That's an extreme example, but it's obvious how much USC relies on Watkins' unbelievable gifts as the focal point of everything the team does:

JuJu Watkins On/Off Splits, 2024-25

  • Possessions: 2,088 On | 503 Off
  • Net Rating: +32.1 On | +14.9 Off
  • Offensive Rating: 110.6 On | 102.2 Off
  • Defensive Rating: 78.5 On | 87.2 Off

(Stats via CBB Analytics)

On the whole, USC's net rating with Watkins on the floor was the best non-UConn team in the country. When she was out or on the bench, they fell to just outside of the Top 50. USC was still a good team — this roster had two WNBA draftees and one of the most talented freshmen classes in the country — but it was Watkins that made the Trojans dominant.

It's not surprising that a top five scorer in the country has a large offensive impact, but Watkins' defensive prowess is what puts her into another tier. She was Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and had a larger impact on slowing opponents down (-8.7 defensive rating) than she did at improving the offense (+8.4 offensive rating).

So, replacing Watkins and her 23.9 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 3.4 APG, 2.2 SPG and 1.8 BPG may be a little tricky. It'll be even more difficult without those two aforementioned WNBA picks: Kiki Iriafen and Rayah Marshall. So where do the Trojans look for answers in the mean time?

There is just one player — Malia Samuels — who is still on the USC roster from that Long Beach State game back in 2023. Samuels is likely to continue to see a rise in minutes, but the 5-6 guard is not a direct solution to the void Watkins leaves.

Samuels is also one of only two returning players who saw the floor in the 78-64 loss to the Huskies at the end of March — the other is Kennedy Smith. Like Watkins, Smith was a highly rated five-star prospect with immense two-way capabilities. Unlike Watkins, Smith was not needed in a do-it-all role as a true freshman... because of the existence of Watkins.

There's plenty of reason to believe Smith can fill much more of the Watkins role than most. She's a tremendous defender (2.9 stocks per game) and was a capable shooter with similar percentages to Watkins, just with much less volume at nearly 10 less attempts per game. If there's an answer on last year's USC roster, that answer is almost certainly Smith, and she is going to get opportunities to increase her role plenty this season.

The Trojans brought in some important help in the offseason to fill out their frontcourt, as well as adding a strong veteran guard presence with Londynn Jones out of UCLA. To help with more Watkins-specific holes in the roster, Gottlieb was able to get Kara Dunn out of Georgia Tech.

While Smith's defense is the most comparable to Watkins, Dunn's offensive abilities are where more of those potential concerns could be answered. Dunn was an extremely effective shooter for the Yellow Jackets last season (49.3/35.4/80.2 splits), and is specifically a more reliable shooter from deep compared to either Watkins (32.5%) or Smith (30.3%).

Dunn also helps in an underrated area of Watkins' game: rebounding. Watkins was third on her team with 6.8 RPG, and Dunn nearly led her team with 5.8 RPG, including 2.5 per game on the offensive glass. USC was a Top 15 rebounding team in the country last season, but are without its top three producers in the category for this year. Dunn should be able to step up there, and her elite second-chance points ability for a guard will fit perfectly with what the Trojans need.

Dunn and Smith are the most clear answers for the questions left in Watkins' absence, but what if USC was able to find another rising talent that now has a golden opportunity to develop before teaming up with Watkins in 2026-27? Surely the Trojans didn't get another top prospect with a similar "good at everything" game that could fill the void as well, right?

Enter Jazzy Davidson. The 6-1 wing ranks at the top of ESPN's prospect list for the 2025 class, and has displayed a tremendous all-around skillset that uses her lengthy wingspan to get to the rim and wreak havoc on defense. She has experience on Team USA's U19 team, and is now joining the roster of last year's Big Ten regular season champion missing its other rangy star wing.

Obviously USC would rather see these two mega-talents on the floor together, but what an opportunity this is for Davidson. Smith's freshman season is a ton of promise to look forward to already and Dunn is an experienced presence that should be a strong primary scorer, but the addition of Davidson alongside them gives the Trojans a certain burst of potential and growth that keeps the roster a very scary one to face.

This USC lineup has concerns outside of replacing Watkins, namely at forward with a pretty inexperienced bunch that could have some growing pains. USC is also unlikely to replicate Watkins' unbelievable ability to get to the line (Top 2 finish in free throw makes in both of her seasons), but as far as replacing a irreplaceable player goes, the Trojans did about as well as anyone could have hoped.

What does this team's ceiling look like for next March? Because of the budding potential of both Smith and Davidson, it still feels hard to cap the Trojans significantly. The fact that the largest concern on the roster could be a position other than the one JuJu played is a triumph to the talent assembled there, and it leaves USC in a place that should have plenty of optimism despite less of the general national expectation.