Tag: Juju Watkins

It’s still very early, but USC women’s basketball looks like a force to be reckoned with

If you were worried about USC women’s basketball after the Ole Miss game, these last two games at home have shown how potent the Trojans can become.

In case you didn’t hear, USC women’s basketball won Tuesday night.

Actually, won is a a massive understatement. USC women’s basketball completely and utterly dominated the lifeless corpse of Cal State Northridge, which had the misfortune of being the Women of Troy’s opponent.

USC led 30-6 after one quarter. At halftime, it was 60-13. Through three quarters, it was 97-20. When the final buzzer sounded, the Trojans had a historic 124-39 victory, and the visitors from Northridge could mercifully go home.

USC’s 124 points scored were a new program record. It was also the Trojans’ second consecutive victory by a margin of 55+ points.

Sure, those games came against Cal Poly and Cal State Northridge, but any time a team wins by 55 and then 85 points, it raises eyebrows.

It is still only three games into the season. The No. 3 Trojans still have nonconference showdowns with No. 6 Notre Dame and No. 2 UConn, plus a gauntlet of a Big Ten schedule, which features seven games against top-25 opponents.

But if early results are any indication, the Women of Troy are going to be a force to be reckoned with this season.

The ugly opener against Ole Miss was the floor for this team. It will play good defense even when it plays bad offense and can stay in games in which it commits turnovers and endures a rough slog at the offensive end. USC will be competitive even when it plays poorly. These last two games against Cal Poly and especially Northridge offer a glimpse of where this team’s ceiling can be. The defense is the constant, but we have seen the offense improve. Notably, Talia von Oelhoffen was finally able to score in double figures. Getting her going really raises this team’s ceiling and raises the bar for what this team can become.

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USC women’s basketball makes history in blowout win

The USC Trojans trouncing Cal State Northridge on Tuesday was expected, but the way they did it was far from ordinary. This performance stood out.

The USC Trojans women’s basketball team is good. Really good. It picked up its third win in as many games this season in super fashion with a 124-39 romp over Cal State Northridge. JuJu Watkins and the rest of the Trojans thrived. The 124-point total broke the school’s single-game scoring record. The 85-point win set the largest margin of victory — men’s or women’s — for Trojans basketball.

The Trojans were led by standout sophomore guard JuJu Watkins, who led all scorers with 21 points and 9 assists. All 13 Trojans who played scored. Six players, including forward Kiki Iriafen (15), scored in double digits.

It was an all-around win for the Trojans. Offensively, they shot 60.8% from the floor and 47.2% beyond the arc while grabbing 15 offensive rebounds. Defensively, the team forced 43 turnovers, four more turnovers than Cal State Northridge had points.

As part of the historic night, USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb picked up her 300th career win, which the team celebrated after the blowout.

The Trojans are a team to keep an eye on this season. Even against weak opponents, with the result known before the tip, this team can create a spectacle night in and night out.

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Notre Dame, USC to be featured throughout NBC tripleheader Nov. 23

Don’t make any plans for that day.

Notre Dame and USC make up an intersectional rivalry unlike any other in the country. One upcoming Saturday will showcase both schools on national TV perhaps like never before.

NBC Sports has a longtime association with Irish football, and USC now is part of a Big Ten which has its games broadcast by the same company. And the stars are aligning for one heck of day.

NBC will kick off a tripleheader of coverage involving both schools with the Irish and Trojans women’s basketball teams meeting in Los Angeles at 4 p.m. EST. All eyes will be on that to see whether [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] and [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] get the best of JuJu Watkins and Kiki Iriafen. Both duos are incredibly dangerous.

Next will be the Irish football team’s annual Shamrock Series game with Army at Yankee Stadium. Wrapping up the day’s coverage will be the Trojans football team facing UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Both games will be the teams’ last before playing each other at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum the following week.

Clear your schedule for Nov. 23, Irish fans. It will be the right day to do so.

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JuJu Watkins suffers double bloody nose during USC’s comeback win against Ole Miss

USC-Ole Miss had seemingly everything, including a JuJu Watkins bloody nose.

JuJu Watkins is as tough as them come because not even a bloody nose would stop her from being on the floor as USC survived a scare from Ole Miss.

Give the Rebels a ton of credit. They applied pressure on the Trojans shortly after halftime and rarely let up. Coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin and her squad caused 26 USC turnovers, keeping the Trojans flustered for much of the second half. Ole Miss also erased a 15-point lead thanks partly to a massive day from senior KK Deans. Deans was absolutely cooking as she put up 19 points, including four buckets from deep.

However, the Trojans remained calm, putting it all on the line — the free throw line — when their team needed it most. JuJu was part of that group effort to finish it, ending her day with 27 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks, four assists and three steals. What did she get for her troubles? A double bloody nose as a parting gift.

(Feature image courtesy of ESPN)

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JuJu Watkins, USC teammates and coaches have a powerful circle of trust

JuJu Watkins implicitly trusts coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who in turn knows JuJu will speak up when she needs to. Mutual trust has to be a strength for USC.

The USC women’s basketball team is highly skilled and experienced. It has a quality coach, Lindsay Gottlieb. It has a superstar, JuJu Watkins, who is now joined by superstar Kiki Iriafen and star Talia von Oelhoffen. Rayah Marshall is the anchor in the paint, and there’s a top-ranked recruiting class ready to offer support and balance to the USC lineup. The raw quality of this team is considerable, but when we contemplate why USC is a legitimate Final Four contender, the word “trust” is important to note. Boardroom Magazine’s feature on JuJu Watkins offers some key insights here.

First off, JuJu Watkins trusts coach Lindsay Gottlieb:

“She’s a great person, she’s super smart and just really everything I was looking for in a coach,” Watkins says. “She definitely pushes me in so many ways, and having that feeling that I can go to her about anything, I think that that’s half the battle. So yea, grateful for her.”

Second, Gottlieb sees how JuJu trusts herself and teammates, being comfortable in communicating to others when needed:

“The other thing that jumps out is she really is a dog and a winner. She’ll play through injury. She’s tough. She exudes sort of a competitiveness that, again, other people really feed off of. And then I would say that the growth we’ve seen is really her trusting her voice and being a vocal leader as well.”

Barring injuries to key players, USC will win a lot of games this season. However, making the Final Four will be tough. There will be games and moments when the Trojans encounter turbulence and adversity. That circle of trust — Gottlieb, JuJu, the assistant coaches, and the rest of the USC women’s basketball roster — will need to show its strength at the right times.

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Three Notre Dame players among ESPN’s top 25 in women’s basketball

The Irish have serious talent. No doubt about it.

Notre Dame is expected to contend for a national championship this season. That’s not by accident. There are many talented players on the Irish, and at least one prominent sports media outlet recognizes that, not that others don’t.

ESPN has released its preseason list of the top 25 players in women’s basketball. The Irish were one of seven teams to have more than one player on the list. In all, three Irish players were afforded the honor.

Unsurprisingly, [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] ranks the highest among her teammates at third. Even without having played last season, [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] still made the list, clocking in at 13th. [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] is right behind her at 14th.

To make things even more exciting, the Irish will face every player this season who is ranked alongside Hidalgo in the top five of this list. Those players are JuJu Watkins, the top-ranked player, alongside USC teammate Kiki Iriafen, Paige Bueckers of UConn and Madison Booker of Texas, which also clocked Rori Harmon in at ninth.

There indeed are some fun times in store for the Irish this season.

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India Otto’s praise for JuJu Watkins shows why USC is poised to succeed

JuJu Watkins’ attitude, more than her raw athletic ability and natural talent, sets her apart from others and gives USC women’s basketball a winning formula.

You might recall the 2024 Women’s NCAA Tournament in which USC women’s basketball hosted its first-round game at the Galen Center. USC scored a blowout win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. In the final minutes, with the starters watching from the bench, reserve India Otto hit two shots, one of them a 3-pointer. The crowd went nuts. JuJu Watkins was effusive in her initial reaction and in her postgame comments. Seeing USC teammates celebrate each other, and take such joy in seeing a player come off the end of the bench to score an NCAA Tournament basket, offered a telling glimpse inside a team which was extremely close and cohesive. Players sacrificed for each other, laughed with each other, fought for each other. It’s why USC was so good last season.

As USC prepares for its 2024-2025 women’s basketball season — one in which the Trojans are primary Final Four contenders — India Otto will not lace up her sneakers and play for the Trojans on the court. She will, however, be part of the basketball program’s support staff. She will still be, in essence, a teammate and helper — for JuJu Watkins and for the rest of the roster. She will help Lindsay Gottlieb and Beth Burns and the rest of the assistant coaches in her role as coordinator of player engagement.

In a feature from Boardroom Magazine, India Otto talked about her close friendship with JuJu Watkins and about the things that make JuJu great:

“True friendships form organically, and they aren’t one-sided. We are there for one another. She is my best friend in the whole world and has truly become my sister; blood couldn’t make us any closer. … Seeing the humility that JuJu possesses day in and day out, the maturity, gratitude, poise, and wisdom at such a young age is inspiring. The way she lives life is beautifully done. She also doesn’t suffer fools. She is kind and gracious, but she is aware of what goes on around her.”

Otto continued:

“She is a gym rat. Not because she is supposed to be, but because she loves this game and she is always working to improve. She has that Mamba Mentality for sure,” Otto continued. “She is focused, driven, relentless, and detail-orientated. Most people walk through the world behind the spotlight. JuJu is that unique talent that the spotlight is focused always on her and she handles it with the utmost grace at every moment, all the while lifting her teammates and recognizing the contributions of those around her.

“She would be the first to downplay her own accomplishments to celebrate that of someone else’s. She’s an incredibly special individual, there’s no one like her. She understands that this is a team game, and she wants each of her teammates to be confident in themselves and be the best they can be.”

JuJu Watkins is a supremely skilled basketball player, but her team-first attitude sets her apart from most. This is the attitude which gives USC a great chance to win at a high level this coming season, which starts next week.

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Notre Dame guard Sonia Citron named to shooting guard award watch list

Good luck, Soni!

For all the talk about [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] and [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag], there’s a third Notre Dame guard who often gets lost in the shuffle. [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] has made both All-ACC and All-ACC Tournament in two consecutive seasons. She was ACC Rookie of the Year two seasons before Hidalgo arrived.

Now, there’s a possibility she could be honored in a different way this season. The Ann Meyers Drysdale Award is presented annually to the best female shooting guard in the country. Citron is one of 20 to make this year’s watch list.

Also on the list is defending winner JuJu Watkins of USC, which will face the Irish in nonconference play. If Watkins impresses as she did as a freshman, Citron will have to somehow surpass that level to have a shot at the award. Of course, the Irish will take that version of Citron if only to improve their national championship chances:

Best of luck to Citron in her attempt to dethrone Watkins.

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Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo named preseason AP All-American

The Irish truly have one of the best players in the country.

Anyone following women’s basketball knows about Notre Dame sophomore guard [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag]. She tore up the landscape as a freshman and even was named a finalist for national player of the year. She is the primary reason the Irish are expected to contend for the Final Four this season, though a returning [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] isn’t far behind.

The Associated Press realizes how special Hidalgo is and has named her to its preseason All-American Team. She is part of the first trio of sophomores to be named to this team alongside JuJu Watkins of USC and Madison Booker of Texas. Paige Bueckers of UConn and Watkins teammate Kiki Iriafen round out the team.

Hidalgo already has been named the ACC Preseason Player of the Year for this season. She led the country with 4.6 steals a game last season and was sixth nationally with 22.6 points a game. It would be shocking for her not to build upon that this season:

Congratulations to all five players who were selected for this honor.

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ESPN’s Charlie Creme highlights Notre Dame in big early-season games

Be sure to watch these games.

Notre Dame is expected to do well this season. Its No. 6 ranking in the AP Top 25 Preseason Poll is evidence of that. Naturally, some of its early games will receive a lot of attention.

In light of the poll’s release, ESPN women’s basketball bracketologist Charlie Creme has published a story that answers the question of what the biggest early-season game is for each team ranked in that poll.

Creme has the Irish’s ACC/SEC Women’s Basketball Challenge matchup against Texas as the Irish’s biggest game and gives the following reason:

“Both the Irish and Longhorns saw freshmen become stars a season ago with their team leaders out with injury. Rori Harmon is back for Texas to team up with Madison Booker, and [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] can now pair [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] and [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag], returning from a knee injury. This is a dream backcourt matchup that could define which duo is meshing the best. This looks to be the best Irish team under Ivey. This game and one a week later against UConn, also in South Bend, should tell us just how good.”

The Irish also will face USC early in the season, and Creme has that game as the biggest for the Trojans, who rank third in the poll. Here’s the reason for that:

“A week before the two schools square off in football in Los Angeles, they do the same in basketball. Both the Trojans and the Irish should be in the mix for a No. 1 seed come March, and the winner of this game takes a massive advantage in that quest. One month before (JuJu) Watkins gets to go head-to-head with (Paige) Bueckers, she faces Hannah Hidalgo, the second-best freshman to Watkins a year ago.”

So yeah, there are a few game on the schedule you won’t want to miss. Simply put, don’t.

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