JuJu Watkins isn’t even sure what a “super team” is, let alone whether USC has built one around her in her triumphant return to the court after a torn right ACL wiped out an entire season.
“I don’t really know what that means,” Watkins said. “Like Miami Heat vibes?” The answer is yes: The vibes of any collection of superstars built around a transcendent player, which is what the Trojans appear to be this season.
It starts with Watkins, one of the biggest stars in women’s college basketball and the AP Player of the Year two years ago after averaging 23.9 points per game as a sophomore, rehabbed and ready to dominate again. “It’s my senior year and I don’t really know what the future holds,” Watkins said. “Just being present every day and being with my team and enjoying every single moment has helped me stay grounded throughout the process.”
It definitely doesn’t end with her. There’s Jazzy Davidson, who emerged as an impact player for USC as a freshman last year during a difficult 18-14 season without Watkins, earning national and Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors. There’s a returning veteran leader in junior guard Kennedy Smith. There’s the country’s No. 1 recruiting class, led by a pair of top-five freshmen in Saniyah Hall and Sara Okeke, that USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said could be “as impactful a freshman class that this conference has ever seen.” And there are transfers from Florida State and UC Davis designed to fill in whatever gaps were left.
All of it has been carefully constructed to maximize Watkins’ unique gifts in her final season at USC and match what the Trojans’ crosstown rivals did a season ago when UCLA won a national title with a team that supplied six of the first 18 picks in the WNBA Draft. Ranked No. 3 in the AP preseason poll behind South Carolina and UConn, aspirations and expectations could not be higher.
“We don’t turn a blind eye to the attention,” Gottlieb said. “We’re not afraid of the gravity that this team will carry around with them in terms of the attention and the excitement. We’re a really fun team. They’re charismatic. We’re going to play an exciting brand of basketball.”
The two California schools have dominated the league since arriving in the fall of 2024. Each school has finished first in the standings and UCLA has a pair of conference tournament titles and Final Four appearances to go with last season’s national title, leaving the Big Ten’s traditional powers behind — just as Maryland did after joining from the ACC in 2014.
As the Bruins retool, the balance of power in the Big Ten appears to be swinging back to USC.
“I celebrate how good USC is going to be,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “I celebrate our amazing rivalry.”
USC is entirely confident the charismatic Watkins can handle the spotlight, so the biggest question for the Trojans may be how Watkins handles the load that will be placed upon her coming off a major injury. Watkins admitted there would be a bit of a learning curve for her early in the season as she feels her way through the process, but she also didn’t want to be held back.
“Can her body withstand whatever we ask her to do? I’m sure,” Gottlieb said. “I’m just thinking about what’s best overall long-term, so we’ll make those decisions as they come, but she’s going to be ready to go.”
As for whether the Trojans have put together a super team or not, Gottlieb wasn’t buying into that even if the Trojans have embraced the hype otherwise. Super team? Maybe. Maybe not. But no matter the label, the expectation is the same.
“I’ve never called it that,” Gottlieb said. “We’ve just tried to assemble a team that we think can have championship aspirations. We’ve got a lot of excellent players that are all going to play whatever role they’re asked to the best of their ability. If you do that at the highest level, it becomes a super team. We’ve got a lot of really good players and an entire roster of players that have bought into what we’re trying to do.”
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