There are some big-time names when it comes to women’s college basketball, and JuJu Watkins is one of them. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she graduated from Sierra Canyon School. ESPN ranked her as the number one recruit in her class and garnered honors as national high school player of the year. Watkins joined the University of Southern California Trojans because she wanted to restore a legacy in her hometown.
Watkins has quite a resume that made her a five-star recruit and the number one player in the 2023 class, according to ESPN. She announced that she would play basketball for USC over Stanford and South Carolina on November 15, 2022. She was recognized as the Gatorade National Player of the Year and Naismith Prep Player of the Year. Watkins also earned the honor to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game, where she shared MVP honors, and the Nike Hoop Summit.
Watkins seeks to lead the trojans to their first national title since 1984. She has phenomenal stats for the 2023-2024 season, averaging 27.1 points which is second on the offensive leaders list, 7.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and a 40.1 field goal percentage. This 6’2” first-year guard helped the USC Trojans women’s basketball team win the 2024 Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Tournament which had not been done since 2014. The Trojans had a good NCAA Tournament March Madness run, advancing to the Elite Eight before losing to UConn 80-73.
Even with a respectful loss to UConn, Watkins has 29 points, 10 rebounds and 2 assists for her final game of the season. She faced off against another big name in women’s college basketball, none other than Paige Bueckers. The Huskies guard put up a great fight during the game as well, posting 28 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists. It was a tough game and a tough loss for the USC Trojans, but rest assured they will be back in national title contention next year.
Watkins as a freshman has been breaking records. In her first NCAA tournament game, she broke the USC single season scoring record set in 1986 by Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller. She also broke the USC record for most 30-point games by a freshman in school history and broke the school’s single game scoring record as well. Watkins earned herself a big recognition as the ESPN National Freshman of the Year. Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb is confident that the Trojans Elight Eight tournament loss will motivate Watkins going forward in her career. “I’ve only ever seen her respond to anything adverse in incredibly positive ways,” said Gottlieb. People can only wonder how much Watkins can improve because she is already such an elite scorer as a freshman. She earned first-team All American honors by being the second-best scorer right behind Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.
Watkins has a tough mindset because when she faces tough opposition and roadblocks in her basketball games, she can quickly get back up and not ponder such things. When the USC Trojans lost their first game, she bounced back by scoring two thirty-point games which ended up being two wins on the team’s record. When USC lost to Washington, Watkins scored less than 30 points. She rebounded by scoring 51 points against Stanford, which set a USC single-game record.
The biggest challenge that USC and Watkins are facing this season is how to continue their growth next season and make it past the Elite Eight. There is now an entire offseason to work on getting stronger for the next season, and although it seems like Watkins could not improve that much, she will still improve. Opponents will likely have an even harder time defending Watkins next season. Her defense is solid too as she earned All-Defensive Team honors from the league’s media.
Watkins has quite the national team career as well. At the 2021 FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship in Mexico, she won an Olympic gold medal with the United States. She averaged 20 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.2 steals and 3.7 assists per game which earned her tournament MVP honors. At the 2022 FIBA Under-17 World Cup in Hungary, Watkins averaged 13.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.3 steals per game. She was named MVP, and her team won the gold medal.
Watkins has a unique achievement from high school during her junior year. She became the first woman athlete to be represented by the Klutch Sports Group agency after she signed with them. She was even able to sign a name, image, and likeness deal with Nike on October 10, 2022. She recently signed a deal with NerdWallet which is a company that helps consumers and small businesses develop greater financial literacy.
What is fascinating is that Watkins is one of the many talents of this generation of women athletes across all sports who are bringing more attention and popularity to their events. This season has been amazing for the women’s college basketball world, because people love seeing the stars play against each other, and seeing the storylines that play in big games. Women’s college basketball has been compared to the WWE by fans, and their Final Four ticket prices and viewership were higher than the men’s basketball games. Caitlin Clark may have significantly contributed to that and now she is retiring, but there are more big names in that league that people want to see. Watkins, being as great as she is, is now raising the notoriety of women’s college basketball too.
Arguments are being made that Watkins could play in the WNBA right now based on her gameplay, but she will not be eligible until she finishes college in 2027. She is the future of Los Angeles hoops and is hungry to take her team to the Final Four next year. Watkins is so fun and entertaining to watch, and we can only predict that she will get better from here, but how much better can she get?
