USC women's basketball's JuJu Watkins receives heartfelt Caitlin Clark message after ACL injury

03/25/2025 01:48 PM

On Monday evening, USC women’s basketball star JuJu Watkins went down with what was later revealed to be a torn ACL during her team’s victory over Mississippi State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The unfortunate injury ends Watkins’ season and hangs a cloud over the rest of the women’s NCAA Tournament, which is set to continue later this week.

On Monday evening, words of support were coming in from all over the sports world for Watkins, and recently, former women’s college star and current WNBA All-Star Caitlin Clark took to X, formerly Twitter, to share her thoughts.

“Sending all my thoughts and prayers to JuJu. Kid will come back stronger than ever,” wrote Clark alongside a heart emoji.

After the game, USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb spoke on how her team showed resilience in the wake of Watkins’ injury.

“You never want anyone to go down, especially someone like JuJu that we all lean on in so many ways. But this team rallied. They rallied for her, they rallied for each other, our fans had our back. I’m just really proud and I think we showed what kind of team we are,” she said, per Jack Maloney of CBS Sports.

Gottlieb added that she was feeling “a lot of emotions” regarding Watkins’ injury.

JuJu Watkins has established herself as one of the best players in women’s college basketball over the past couple of seasons and many project her to quickly become one of the top players in the WNBA when she takes her talents there.

While this injury may throw a slight wrench in that timeline, Watkins will have the support of the entire basketball community as she works her way back.

USC will next take the floor on Saturday against Kansas State in the third round of the tournament.

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