Asked Monday what the best part about being back has been so far, a big smile crept across Watkins’ face.

“Honestly everything,” Watkins said. “Like I don’t even know, the smallest stuff just gets me excited.”

Watkins’ return is a momentous mile marker for a Trojans team that has serious national title aspirations this season. Her status remains uncertain, and reporters in attendance Monday were told not to inquire further about Watkins’ recovery timeline. But she did say she’s already been able to scrimmage during USC’s summer practice and that she’s “feeling back like myself.”

“It’s just been a long time coming,” Watkins said. “I’ve just been working out and grinding every day so that I could be in position, so to see all of that hard work pay off right now, it’s really fulfilling.”

Watkins was a two-time consensus All-American and the Associated Press player of the year in 2025, when her knee buckled that March 24th during a breakaway in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The injury, a torn anterior cruciate ligament, not only derailed a possible title run that season, but also upended the Trojans’ trajectory for the next one.

Facing one of the toughest schedules in the nation, USC missed Watkins dearly. The Trojans finished their frustrating season ninth in the Big Ten without her and 18-14 before losing in the NCAA tournament’s round of 32.

As she sat out, Watkins said she struggled to keep still. Patience didn’t come naturally. She found herself leaning on others, she said, like Dallas Wings point guard Paige Bueckers, the #1 overall pick who went through her own ACL recovery.

“She was constantly checking up on me, sending me texts, encouraging me,” Watkins said of Bueckers, who played her college ball at UCONN where she won a NC in 2025. ‘I really appreciated that.”

Coaches suggested she pour that energy into her teammates. So she took solace in doing the little things, like arranging the locker room chairs before games.

“Just to watch her take something that was so difficult and pour herself into everything that went into last year was something I’ll never forget,” coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “I really do take a lot of inspiration from it.”

The silver lining, coming out of a season without their superstar, was the emergence of freshman Jazzy Davidson, who came to USC to play alongside Watkins. Instead, she ended up winning freshman of the year and becoming a rising star in her own right after averaged 17.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game.

This month, Watkins and Davidson finally were able to take the floor together, just as Gottlieb had envisioned. She’d waited quite a while for that pairing, she reminded reporters Monday. But Davidson, she thinks, will be all the better for having survived her freshman season without Watkins.

“You just come back with a different level of confidence,” Gottlieb said. “I hope she brings with her every experience she had because who had more experience than Jazzy in terms of a freshman year where she handled so much?”

Saniyah Hall marks the third straight No. 1 overall prospect to sign with Gottlieb and USC, but she steps into a decidedly different scenario than the other two did. In addition to Watkins and Davidson, the Trojans also brought in two other top freshmen in Sitaya Fagan and Sara Okeke, as well as two priority portal additions in Ryann Bennett and Pania Davis.

“P (Davis) is 6-foot-6, she’s mobile, she’s got great hands, but she made a decision, when she finished up at Florida State, to not go home to Australia, to come right here,” Gottlieb said. “If you also talk to anyone who’s coached her or knows her, the first thing they say is winner, connector, understands people – and that’s what we’ve seen.”

Guard Kennedy Smith, who hails from Chino, added that she’s particularly looking forward to playing alongside Bennett, a Long Beach local, who she has competed with since she was eight.

“With the talent that’s on the team,” Hall said, “I think it could be something that’s very special.”

That starts with Watkins, who, in spite of a year away, apparently hasn’t skipped a beat in her return.

“I feel like she’s back like she never left,”  Smith said. Even Smith, the Trojan’s highest ranked recruit in 2024, was ranked sixth in her class.

“It’s just been a long time coming,” Watkins said. “I’ve just been working out, grinding every day, so that I could be in this position. … One thing I’ve learned about myself throughout this process is patience is the biggest thing.”

“All the talent we have should make everybody more efficient and everybody’s lives a little bit easier,” Gottlieb said. “Collectively, we’re even better than they would be individually. That’s the idea of a team.”

USC had a team dinner last week, will practice at the Los Angeles Sparks’ training site on Tuesday, and have workshops on financial literacy and mental strengthening, Gottlieb said. Smith added that the Trojans had a “Love Island” watch party on Friday.

latimes.com  ocregister.com

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