{"id":827457,"date":"2025-03-26T14:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T18:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=827457"},"modified":"2025-03-26T14:02:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T18:02:17","slug":"juju-acl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/slam-university\/womens-college-basketball-slam-university\/2025-ncaa-tournament-womens-college-basketball-slam-university\/juju-acl\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Sending Juju Love&#8217;: Juju Watkins Suffers Season Ending ACL Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Prayers up for Juju Watkins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The USC superstar tore her ACL against Mississippi State and will miss the remainder of the season, the team confirmed. The injury occurred in the first quarter of the Trojans&#8217; NCAA tournament matchup to secure a spot to the Sweet 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watkins, who was already playing through tweaks to both her left wrist and ankle from their win over UNC Greensboro, was driving to the basket in transition when her knee appeared to buckle. She immediately fell to the ground and held her right knee, grimacing in pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The crowd at the Galen Center went silent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As her teammates powered through, winning 96-59 en-route to the Sweet 16, it\u00a0was later revealed that Juju was wheeled out of the arena and rushed to a nearby medical facility to receive an MRI. USC has also confirmed that Watkins will undergo surgery.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">JuJu Watkins sustained a season-ending injury in the NCAA Second Round on Monday night. She will undergo surgery and then begin rehabilitation shortly thereafter.<\/p>&mdash; USC Women&#39;s Basketball (@USCWBB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/USCWBB\/status\/1904406391747706986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 25, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the devastating news became official, the entire basketball community has offered their support to one of the games&#8217; brightest young stars. Watkins is a generational talent, SLAM cover star and an inspiration to young girls everywhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Prayers up for JuJu\ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udffd Leave a message for one of our favorite hoopers! \ud83d\udcdd <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1hH5F3jhMA\">pic.twitter.com\/1hH5F3jhMA<\/a><\/p>&mdash; WSLAM (@wslam) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wslam\/status\/1904588158940881091?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 25, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Prayers up\ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udffd\ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udffd<\/p>&mdash; Aliyah A. Boston (@aa_boston) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/aa_boston\/status\/1904358498533523942?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 25, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My heart is broken\ud83d\udc94 I will keep you in my prayers\ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udffe <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jujubballin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Jujubballin<\/a> I know you will be back stronger and better!! Fight On <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/USCWBB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@USCWBB<\/a> for Juju\u270c\ud83c\udffe<\/p>&mdash; Lisa Leslie (@LisaLeslie) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LisaLeslie\/status\/1904504895346016697?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 25, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Sending all my thoughts and prayers to JuJu. Kid will come back stronger than ever \u2764\ufe0f<\/p>&mdash; Caitlin Clark (@CaitlinClark22) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CaitlinClark22\/status\/1904578404776636794?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 25, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">one of the brightest stars the game has ever seen\u2026 in a city known for making them. <br><br>sending Juju love  \ud83e\udd0d\ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udfff<\/p>&mdash; Chiney Ogwumike (@chiney) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chiney\/status\/1904372779375346171?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 25, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Prayers for Juju! \ud83e\udd7a\ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udffd<\/p>&mdash; Angel Reese (@Reese10Angel) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Reese10Angel\/status\/1904363088402432351?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 25, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Wishing you a speedy recovery, No. 12. USC will play Kansas State on Saturday in the Sweet 16.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prayers up for Juju Watkins. The USC superstar tore her ACL against Mississippi State and will miss the remainder of the season, the team confirmed. The injury occurred in the first quarter of the Trojans&#8217; NCAA tournament matchup to secure a spot to the Sweet 16. Watkins, who was already playing through tweaks to both [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":544,"featured_media":827460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65377],"tags":[64925,63726],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-827457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2025-ncaa-tournament-womens-college-basketball-slam-university","tag-juju-watkins","tag-wslam"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/544"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827457"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":827461,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827457\/revisions\/827461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827457"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=827457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}