Dawn Staley will spend Sunday trying to beat JuJu Watkins, but the South Carolina coach has spent months quietly rooting for her. With the USC superstar set to face the Gamecocks in one of the most anticipated games of the regular season, Staley made it clear she believes Watkins' return from a torn ACL is good for everyone in the sport.

"I want JuJu to come back and have a great year," Staley told CBS Sports ahead of the season. "I think our game needs her. Our game missed her the past college season. So, looking forward for her to just keep bringing eyeballs to our game and keep doing JuJu type things."

Sunday's contest features two AP Top 3 teams and rosters loaded with star power, but the brightest spotlight belongs to Watkins, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2027 WNBA Draft. The game falls on the same day as the WNBA Draft Lottery, and scouts are expected to be watching closely.

Asked what advice she would give a player returning from a long layoff, Staley pointed to the mental side of the game. "So strengthening your mentals. Just imagining and visualizing yourself back on the court, doing the things that you've done that create the buzz around your name is what you need to focus on," she said. "Even the good, the bad days, you always have setbacks. Whether you have an injury or not. You really always have a setback. Ju is strong. Ju is mentally tough. She is somebody that little girls should look up to, and little boys should look up to."

This will be the first time Watkins has played against Staley's program, and she said earlier this week that Nov. 15 had been circled on her calendar. The holder of the Division I freshman scoring record and the 2025 Naismith Player of the Year, Watkins missed 588 days after tearing her ACL during the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Her comeback season has opened strongly, with averages of 24.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 3.7 steals and 1 block per game through three contests. This will be her first ranked opponent since returning, and it happens to be the No. 1 team in the country.

Watkins said her approach against elite competition is to zero in on the details. "I think whenever you are playing a super tough team, it comes down to the small things," she said earlier this week. "Whether that's O boards, 50/50 balls, small things like that. So just making sure that we are leading in those categories and I think we'll be in a pretty good spot."

The USC senior is a three-level scorer, but she will face a stern challenge against a South Carolina program known for consistent defense. The Gamecocks are allowing just 58.7 points per game early in the 2026-27 campaign, a stretch that included holding then-No. 12 North Carolina to 39 points on Nov. 8. Returners such as senior forward Ashlyn Watkins and two-way star Joyce Edwards were already threats, and Staley added Jordan Lee this summer after Lee played her first two college seasons at Texas under defense-first coach Vic Schaefer.

USC went 0-2 against South Carolina last season, including a 101-61 loss in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, but Watkins was sidelined and the Trojans did not yet have the nation's top freshman, Saniyah Hall. With last season's Freshman of the Year Jazzy Davidson also back, Lindsay Gottlieb's team has a three-headed attack, with all three averaging more than 19 points per game and USC scoring 107.7 points per contest as a team. "JuJu being back, Saniyah Hall being added to the mix changes the entire dynamics to guarding them," Staley said. "A lot of it is you're going to have to guard your yard..and your neighbors too."

Watkins said this week that defense has dominated USC's practices, and the Trojans are holding opponents to 50.7 points per game, though they have yet to face a ranked team, making early comparisons with South Carolina difficult. The battle of "The Real SC" is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. ET, and tip-off is expected to remain unchanged even though USC's flight was moved to Saturday because of the FAA's nationwide ground stop on Friday.