Lady Rebels Open Against No. 3 USC in Las Vegas — and JuJu Watkins Returns After 588 Days
UNLV's season opener is the hardest ticket in the building. The Lady Rebels face No. 3 USC at 1 p.m. Monday at T-Mobile Arena on CBS Sports Network, in the game that brings USC star JuJu Watkins back to a regulation court for the first time since her knee injury on March 24, 2025.
The hometown team drew the headliner. UNLV opens its 2026-27 season against No. 3 USC on Monday at 1 p.m. Pacific at T-Mobile Arena, in the Hall of Fame Women's Showcase — the fourth consecutive year the event has been held in Las Vegas — televised on CBS Sports Network with Jordan Kent and Ice Young on the call, according to UNLV Athletics. It is the opener of a 13-game non-conference schedule head coach Lindy La Rocque built for the Lady Rebels, and it starts at the deep end: USC arrives as the No. 3 team in the national rankings with the deepest roster in the showcase.
The game's national storyline wears a USC uniform. Senior JuJu Watkins, the 2024-25 consensus National Player of the Year, is expected to play her first regulation NCAA game in 588 days, after the knee injury she suffered on March 24, 2025, according to USC Athletics. Around her, the Trojans add Jazzy Davidson, the reigning national freshman of the year, and Saniyah Hall, the nation's No. 1 incoming recruit. For UNLV, the counter is history and home floor: the Lady Rebels lead the all-time series 6-5, although USC has won the last two meetings — most recently 86-72 in Las Vegas in the 2018-19 season — according to the Naismith Hall of Fame's series record.
The women's session runs as a doubleheader: Arizona and Stanford meet in the session's other game, and the men's session follows in the same building with Gonzaga-Purdue and Arizona-UCLA. For the Lady Rebels, Monday is a measuring stick before it is anything else — a Mountain West contender, at home in its own city, against the No. 3 team in the country and the sport's biggest returning star. Whatever the score, Las Vegas learns in one afternoon exactly how close its team is to the national picture it wants to join.
