New USC Star Jazzy Davidson Fuels AP NCAA Rankings Skyrocket Without JuJu Watkins
When USC Trojans women's basketball superstar JuJu Watkins suffered a torn ACL during the 2025 NCAA tournament, it was a grim day for the basketball community.
Not only is Watkins beloved, and viewed as one of the most talented players in all of college basketball, both men's and women's, but her injury (and the ensuing decision to sit out the entire 2025-26 NCAA season to ensure a full recovery) made many assume that the Trojans would not be able to compete for a national championship this year.
The jury is still out on whether this is the case. However, USC's start to the 2025-26 season is making many within the industry feel like this team could still make major waves without Watkins. And this newfound faith is largely owed to freshman Jazzy Davidson.
Despite only having two games at USC, Davidson (who was the No. 1 recruit in the 2025 class, according to ESPN) has already asserted herself as women's college basketball's next big star. This was made apparent when she scored 21 points (along with 5 blocks, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals) and made a game-winning layup just a few seconds before the buzzer during USC's upset 69-68 win over NC State on November 9.
JAZZY DAVIDSON TODAY 🔥
— Women’s Hoops Network (@WomensHoops_USA) November 9, 2025
• 21 POINTS
• 5 BLOCKS
• 4 REBOUNDS
• 4 ASSISTS
• 3 STEALS
#18 USC TAKES DOWN #9 NC STATE! pic.twitter.com/X9v0rEBf2u
Jazzy Davidson Sparks USC Skyrocket Up NCAA AP Top 25 Rankings
The Trojans were the country's No. 18-ranked team before Sunday's win over NC State, who was ranked No. 9.
The new AP Top 25 rankings were released on November 10, and USC jumped up a whopping 10 spots after this big win, putting them at No. 8 in the new rankings.
Aside from USC, some of the other notable changes were the Baylor Bears going from No. 16 to No. 9 in the rankings after several impressive wins. The top six in the rankings remained the same, with UConn holding the No. 1 spot, then Dawn Staley's South Carolina Gamecocks at No. 2, then the UCLA Bruins at No. 3, then the Texas Longhorns at No. 4, then Kim Mulkey's LSU Tigers squad at No. 5, and then the Oklahoma Sooners at the sixth spot.
The Trojans are probably going to have a tough time competing against these top teams without Watkins on their roster this season. However, the instant success that Davidson has had as a freshman suggests that she and Watkins will be a lethal duo when Watkins returns healthy for the 2026-27 season, and should instantly make USC a championship favorite.
In the meantime, it will be fun to see how far USC can go with Davidson heading their offensive attack.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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