PHOTO: USC star JuJu Watkins shows off her latest ink via IG story

JuJu Watkins is preparing for her sophomore season with the USC Trojans. She has kept her fans updated on all her latest training sessions, but her recent Instagram update was not the usual.

On Sunday, Watkins shared a picture of her with a fresh tattoo on her Instagram story. Her new ink, apparently tatted on her left hand, read:

"Tears Dry."

She also tagged her Los Angeles-based tattoo artist, Armando Franco, and added a goat emoji next to it.

JuJu Watkins's new tattoo (Credit: Instagram/@jujuballin)

JuJu Watkins also underwent surgery on her right arm during this offseason. The procedure was done to take care of a lingering issue from her high school days. While this put her out of using her right hand for almost a month, Watkins used this time to work on her left-hand skills.

“I was really eager to just work on my left (hand),” Watkins told the Southern California News Group. “So throughout the whole process, I was just telling myself, like, ‘You need to work on your left anyways. So might as well take advantage of the situation.’”

In her freshman season last year, Watkins performed exceptionally well, averaging 27.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.3 steals. However, it was evident that teams had figured out her left-hand inability and tried to throw her toward it. NBA assistant coach Phil Handy, who is JuJu Watkins' trainer, said this about it:

"The biggest thing is, it won’t matter where the defense tries to send her … 'You try to send me left, send me right, doesn’t matter. I’ll be able to execute and dominate with both hands.'"

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JuJu Watkins is preparing to lead the stacked Trojans roster

In the offseason, the USC Trojans added Kiki Iriafen and Talia von Oelhoffen from the transfer portal. They also signed No. 6 ranked Kennedy Smith, No. 13 Kayleigh Heckel, No. 16 Avery Howell, No. 54 Rian Forestier and No. 92 Laura Williams from the 2024 recruiting class.

The Trojans have also learned from their Elite Eight run last season, as coach Lindsay Gottlieb said in an interview with 247Sports from April:

“We took a lot of steps with our offense this year with spacing and being able to put pressure on the defense and being difficult to guard. ... It showed us kind of how close we are to getting where we want to go, but also showing that we're not quite there yet.

“And it'll motivate us to, I think, continue to get better as individual players but also for me to continue to make us as hard to guard as possible.”

What are your predictions for JuJu Watkins and the USC Trojans? Let us know in the comments section below.