It took JuJu Watkins just six games to set a USC freshman record

JuJu Watkins keeps raising the bar and doing incredible things at USC.

JuJu Watkins is calling to mind one of the greatest quotes in the history of golf. Early 20th-century golf icon Bobby Jones, the man who created The Masters golf tournament and is easily one of the five most influential figures in the history of the sport, watched a young man named Jack Nicklaus burst onto the scene in the 1960s. Jones saw Nicklaus dominate golf, taking the baton from Arnold Palmer as the elite golfer of his time.

Jones remarked about Nicklaus, “He plays a game with which I am not familiar.” It remains a memorable and striking quote nearly 60 years after it was first uttered, mostly because the quote forces people to stop and contemplate it.

Jones didn’t directly say, “Jack Nicklaus is a walking god and the best I have ever seen at golf.” The quote is more subtle but carries that same weight and respect. Jones was saying that Nicklaus had completely transformed and reinvented the sport, doing things previous generations had never done or even thought about.

That is basically what JuJu Watkins is doing in women’s college basketball, and what she is doing at USC basketball in particular.

Lisa Leslie — the person who could be compared to Bobby Jones in this story — is an all-time USC basketball legend and a women’s basketball icon. She scored 30 or more points in three games as a USC freshman in the 1990-1991 college basketball season.

JuJu Watkins, in a span of just six games as a USC freshman, has already topped that number with four 30-point (or more) games.

JuJu Watkins really is playing a game with which we are not familiar.

The amazing thing is that this is just the beginning. We could have three more years of this at USC.

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