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USC lands No. 1 player in 2026 amid JuJu Watkins’ injury
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- USC lands No. 1 player in 2026 amid JuJu Watkins’ injury
The post USC lands No. 1 player in 2026 amid JuJu Watkins' injury appeared first on ClutchPoints .
The USC Trojans got a major win on Friday with the commitment of Saniyah Hall, the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2026, as per Talia Goodman of On3 Sports. Saniyah Hall's commitment gives USC the top three recruits in the last four recruiting classes with 2023 No. 1 JuJu Watkins and 2025 No. 1 Jazzy Davidson. The only one they missed out on in the last four years was 2024 No. 1 Sarah Strong who is starring for the UConn Huskies .
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The Trojans landing Hall is a strong sign of their recruiting power amid the unfortunate injury to Watkins. Watkins suffered a knee injury during last season's NCAA Tournament and missed the Trojans' last two games in their run to the Elite Eight. The timeline for her recovery is unknown, but it's likely she'll miss a good portion of the 2025-26 season, if not all.
But regardless of what happens next year, USC could potentially have all three players on the court at the same time for the 2026-27 season. That could be Watkins' potential senior year while it would be Davidson's sophomore season and Hall's freshman season.
Hall has one more year of high school left at SPIRE Academy. She began her high school basketball career at Laurel School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, before transferring to SPIRE for this upcoming season.
This summer, Hall was a member of Team USA's U19 gold medal winning team at the FIBA U19 Women's Basketball World Cup. Hall was selected as the tournament MVP and was named to the all-tournament team as well. She also participated in the FIBA 3×3 U18 World Cup in 2024 as part of Team USA's gold medal squad.
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Hall is the first player of USCs' 2026 recruiting class so far. This past season, the Trojans had the No. 1 ranked recruiting class in the nation with seven freshman including NCAA Tournament standout Kennedy Smith. Since then, two players from that group have transferred with Kayleigh Heckel going to UConn and Avery Howell going to Washington.
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