NCAA NIL Mar 17, 2023; Columbus, Ohio, USA; A basketball sits on the court during the first round of the NCAA men s basketball tournament between the Michigan State Spartans and USC Trojans at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-The Columbus Dispatch Basketball Ncaa Men S Basketball Tournament
By Reice Shipley on

The USC Trojans were expected to take a pretty significant jump in the 2025-26 college basketball season after bringing in a top-20 ranked recruiting class headlined by Alijah Arenas, the son of NBA star Gilbert Arenas. But unfortunately, they will have to do so without Alijah Arenas, who suffered an injury that puts his freshman season in jeopardy.

On paper, Alijah Arenas has all of the talent to put together a basketball career as great as his father’s, finishing as the No. 13 ranked recruit in the ESPN Top 100 recruiting ranking in the 2025 high school recruiting rankings.

Unfortunately, it may take some time until we see Arenas put on a USC uniform. According to NBA insider Chris Haynes, Arenas recently suffered a full meniscus tear, which will put his freshman season in jeopardy as it will require reconstructive surgery that is expected to force him to miss 6 to 8 months.

Arenas has faced some incredibly unfortunate obstacles in the past couple of months, as he was just recently cleared to return to playing basketball after being involved in a car accident where he sustained life threatening injuries.

Now, Arenas will be sidelined even longer, which is obviously incredibly unfortunate for both USC basketball fans and for Arenas individually.

Naturally, there were plenty of reactions from the college basketball community on social media, with many offering their well wishes for as speedy a recovery as possible for Arenas.

One of the many who publicly offered their support for Arenas was USC head coach Eric Musselman, who publicly declared that the USC program will be “supporting him” throughout his recovery process.

“Alijah is a tremendous worker, teammate, competitor, and person,” wrote Musselman in a post on X. “He is understandably disappointed that he will not be able to take the court to start the season, but his health is our No. 1 priority. We have no doubt that he will come back even stronger. We look forward to supporting him during this process.”

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.

View all posts by Reice Shipley