Well, now! That was quite a way to make an entrance for JuJu Watkins.
The USC freshman played her very first regular-season game as a Trojan on Monday. She did so in Las Vegas, a city of dreams and aspirations. She faced the No. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes, a team with big dreams of its own. The Buckeyes are expected to battle Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes for the Big Ten championship this season. USC, ranked in the top 25 in the preseason polls but just outside the top 20, faced a very big challenge.
JuJu Watkins was going to need to do something special in her first game in order to beat the Buckeyes and give USC women’s basketball a great start to its season.
Does 32 points on 11-of-18 shooting sound good enough for you? What about six rebounds and five assists as well?
Watkins dominated a top-10 opponent in her first USC game. She didn’t need a warm-up game against Long Beach State or Cal-State Bakersfield. She was thrown into the fire against Ohio State and immediately played like a No. 1 recruit.
Social media reaction was swift and clear: USC has something very, very special on its hands.
Let’s see how people responded to this electric collegiate debut for JuJu Watkins: