USC's Jacki Gemelos won't give up on basketball despite injuries That first night, she awoke startled. Just a bad dream, she thought. Then Jacki Gemelos came to. "This was real," she told herself, "It happened." Earlier that day, Dec. 18, she lay crumpled on a court, crying, the ligament that provides stability in a knee was torn, again, her life unstable, again, and her USC basketball career over. "It's a shame people really didn't see this kid play at her peak," said former USC coach Mark Trakh, who recruited her. She was really something. In 2006, Gemelos was the No. 1 girls' basketball recruit in the nation, a guard who averaged 39.2 points per game and was considered a blend of Magic Johnson and Pete Maravich. USC Coach Michael Cooper thought she was good enough to bypass college and play in the WNBA. Unfortunately, she played just 57 games in three seasons for the Trojans because of four torn anterior cruciate ligaments, two in each knee. "Maybe I wasn't even meant to play college basketball," Gemelos said. On Tuesday, she underwent ACL reconstruction surgery. It was her fifth surgery in seven years, after one of the surgeries had to be repeated because of complications. She'll rehabilitate for eight to 12 months, relearning to walk, to run, to trust her knees that keep betraying her. Her goal is to get healthy, then try and play in the WNBA. In Stockton, at her family's one-story home that's the color of melted chocolate, the garage is filled with hundreds of trophies she won over the years. Before her first torn ACL during her senior season at St. Mary's High in Stockton, Gemelos had never so much as jammed her thumb on the basketball court. She sat out her first three seasons at USC because of the injury in high school and two more ACL tears. Every time, the injury occurred within the first few months of completing rehab. Gemelos' older sister, Johnna, tore ligaments in her left knee in high school, an injury that ultimately ended her basketball career, but Gemelos wouldn't let one end hers. Still, when her dog, a Cocker Spaniel named Oliver, tore ligaments in both front legs a few years ago, Gemelos wondered if she were cursed. The only time she truly believed it wasn't meant for her to play basketball was about six months after her third surgery, when her body rejected the grafted ligament, meaning Gemelos needed another surgery and to start rehab over. "After that, I started to wonder if God was telling me, 'Look elsewhere,' " she said. To fight depression, she went to gyms to shoot. One night, she limped on crutches to USC's Galen Center, where a custodian was supposed to let her in. He never came. She stood in the rain, crying. At 15, she committed to powerhouse Connecticut, the youngest commit in the program's history. But she ultimately chose USC so that family and friends could see her play.