Tag: Juju Watkins

USC women’s basketball gets huge games from JuJu Watkins and Kiki Iriafen

JuJu Watkins and Kiki Iriafen combined to score 64 points between them. The entire Saint Louis team scored 65. Yes, it was a good day for the Trojans.

The USC women’s basketball team has a lot to prove right now, given how poorly it played against Notre Dame and Ole Miss. The two elite defensive teams USC has faced both gummed up the Trojans’ offense. It has to be said that winning 104-65 over Saint Louis on Friday doesn’t somehow indicate the Trojans have fixed their problems. Saint Louis is a sub-.500 team. USC is going to hammer bad teams. The true test for the Trojans, JuJu Watkins, and Kiki Iriafen is how they perform against the next really good defensive opponent they face. Until then, it’s not worth saying how improved or restored this team is.

However, these games against lesser opponents are valuable because they offer the opportunity to establish rhythm, continuity, and flow on offense. These players need to learn how to play together. Each game is a chance to build a stronger connection on the court and develop a natural understanding of how to work together. It wasn’t all going to happen at once. It wasn’t going to just click into an easy coexistence. This stuff is hard, and it takes real work.

Friday, we saw signs that maybe USC’s stars are beginning to get the hang of this thing.

JuJu Watkins scored 34 points and Kiki Iriafen scored 30. Notably, both players shot over 50 percent from the field. JuJu was 12 of 22, Kiki 9 of 16 with 12 of 12 makes at the free throw line. That’s the efficiency USC and Lindsay Gottlieb need to see from their best players. Iriafen, if she becomes a consistent force, will open up the court for JuJu Watkins. Then USC becomes a massively better team.

Gottlieb was once again able to give bench players extended minutes. Three players came off the bench to play at least 12 minutes, and seven bench players entered the game, enabling USC to play 12 players. Everyone needs work. Everyone needs to learn.

The win over Saint Louis advanced those pursuits for USC women’s basketball. It was a good day for the Trojans.

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Why JuJu Watkins’ mom still makes her signature bun for every game

Juju Watkins’ mom needs to drop the secret. The bun is always IMMACULATE.

Anytime USC sophomore sensation JuJu Watkins takes the floor, it’s hard to miss her signature high ponytail shaped into a bun. You might wonder how it ALWAYS looks so crisp without a hair out of place.

Here’s the answer: Her mom still does it for her every game.

This is what JuJu recently said when asked why her mom does her hair:

“The fact that everybody’s gonna know my mom does my hair after this…like, I’m getting so much backlash. Listen, this is all I’m gonna say: I’m working on it. I’m trying to get it like that. This woman has 18 years of experience. So, please. Relax. Chill on me for a second.”

It’s hard to replicate something that has CLEARLY been perfected with an ironclad process. So, her (not so) secret is safe with us. But we can’t wait for JuJu to try it on her own. We know the results would be tremendous.

@uninterrupted

JuJu Watkins shares her pregame routine with her mom ❤️ #StateFarmPartner #JuJuWatkins #basketball #USC #SierraCanyon

♬ original sound – uninterrupted

https://www.instagram.com/p/DC2G–hxqb8/?igsh=MTc4OTh5Z2Y5Zjk4cA==

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Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo wins two Player of the Week awards

Way to go, Hannah!

Notre Dame’s [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] played only one game last week, but it made enough of an impact for every women’s basketball fan to notice her. While she was known already, she reminded everyone of her existence anyway.

One day after Hidalgo was named the ACC Player of the Week, the Associated Press named her its player of the week. This came after a win over USC in which she had a line of 24 points, eight rebounds, six assists and five steals.

The game marked the 10th time in her collegiate career in which she achieved a line of at least 20 points and at least five each of rebounds, assists and steals. No other women’s basketball player has done it that many times in the past 25 years.

On at least one day, Hidalgo was the better player on the floor than Trojans standout JuJu Watkins. Here are some of her highlights from the game:

Many more honors will come to her this season. There’s no reason to think they won’t.

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Notre Dame women’s basketball gets biggest win of young season vs. USC

This was a monster win for the Irish.

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

Everyone wanted to see the Notre Dame and USC women’s basketball teams play each other. The biggest reason was to see [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] and JuJu Watkins go up against each other.

We got the first of what will be at least two meetings between the teams Saturday in Los Angeles, and the Irish emerged victorious over the Trojans, 74-61. With both teams expected to be national championship contenders, this was the biggest win of the season so far.

The Irish (5-0) never trailed against the Trojans (4-1), who only tied the game twice and not at all after the 4:07 mark of the first quarter. That was the result of the Irish beating the Trojans with superior defense and a high-paced offense that took far more advantage of its opportunities. Their 17-9 steals advantage contributed mightily to their 20-8 advantage in fast break points.

The Irish’s biggest lead was at 21, and the Trojans scored eight straight points at the end to make the final score closer.

Hidalgo scored 16 of her 24 points in the first half. She also had a game-high five steals, but [autotag]Liatu King[/autotag] made up for missing the Irish’s last game by collecting four of her own steals as well as a game-high 11 rebounds.

[autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] collected 14 of her 20 points in the second half. That included hitting a career-high four 3-pointers for the third time in her collegiate career and the second straight game in which she reached that mark.

Watkins also scored 24 points, 19 of which came in the second half. Kiki Iriafen had 15 points and finished one rebound shy of a double-double. Talia von Oelhoffen, who helped Oregon State eliminate the Irish in last season’s NCAA Tournament, added 10 points.

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Juju Watkins documentary to premiere this Saturday

JuJu Watkins stars in a documentary for which she will also get a producer’s credit. The doc is the lead-in to the USC women’s basketball game vs Notre Dame.

Saturday will be a huge day for Trojan athletics on NBC. At 1 p.m. Pacific time, the network will air the USC women’s basketball team’s early-season top-five showdown with Notre Dame. Then at 7:30 p.m., NBC will also show the football team’s crosstown rivalry matchup with UCLA. Prior to the two games, NBC will also premiere a documentary on USC women’s basketball star Juju Watkins.

Entitled, “On the Rise: Juju Watkins,” JuJu herself both stars in and helps produce the series. It will follow Watkins’ journey from her time in high school through her freshman year at USC, when she immediately established herself as one of the top players in the country.

With the release of the documentary, Watkins effectively becomes the first college athlete to have a series about her while still in school. It will feature appearances by celebrities including WNBA legend Candace Parker, rapper 2Chainz, and former USC star Tina Thompson.

The first two episodes of “On the Rise: Juju Watkins” will air Saturday at noon Pacific on NBC. They will immediately lead into the showdown between the Trojans and the Fighting Irish. The remaining episodes will stream exclusively on Peacock.

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Fighting Irish Wire shares X-factor for USC-Notre Dame showdown

USC women’s basketball has to know where Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles is on the floor at all times during Saturday’s huge game in the Galen Center.

On Saturday, USC women’s basketball meets Notre Dame in an early-season top-10 showdown.

Heading into the matchup, Geoffrey Clark of Fighting Irish Wire gave his thoughts on a player who could be a potential X-factor for Notre Dame.

“After missing all of last season, Olivia Miles has wasted no time reminding everyone she still is around,” Clark said. “She recorded a triple-double in her first game back, and she’s a threat to do that whenever she steps on the court.

”Once the Irish’s best player, the early returns on how well she meshes with (Hannah) Hidalgo are extremely promising.”

If the Trojans want to prevail, containing Miles will be essential.

Tipoff between USC and Notre Dame is set for just after 1 p.m. local time in Los Angeles in the Galen Center on Saturday. The game will be televised by NBC and will stream on Peacock. Notre Dame plays football on NBC at 4 p.m. Pacific time later on Saturday. USC and UCLA play football at 7:30 Pacific that night, also on NBC.

Check out our podcast on USC women’s basketball and the big clash versus Notre Dame:

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JuJu Watkins makes NIL history shortly before making USC history

JuJu Watkins’ scored her 1000th career point at USC shortly after making NIL history and developing her robust national brand.

In the season following Caitlin Clark’s departure from women’s college hoops, JuJu Watkins of USC women’s basketball is the next big thing. The sophomore finished second in scoring behind Clark last season as a freshman. JuJu has picked up right where she left off this year, averaging 21.3 points per game to start the season.

On Friday, behind a 22-point performance in an 81-50 throttling of Santa Clara, Watkins became the fourth-fastest player to reach 1,000 career points in Division I history, passing none other than Clark. She also made USC history by becoming the fastest Trojan to reach 1,000. It took her only 38 games.

Off the court, JuJu is making history with her NIL deals. Watkins has inked a deal with Gatorade and a multiyear extension with Nike, but she also became the first student-athlete to sign a deal with Funko Pop! collectibles. On top of that, it was recently announced that she would star in and executive produce her own show on NBC and Peacock.

We are still in the early stages of Watkins’ career. She is already turning heads night in and night out and etching her name in the record books. The 1,000-point mark is just the beginning of what we will see from her this season, as it becomes clearer that USC has one of the top players in women’s basketball, and maybe the best of them all.

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JuJu Watkins scores 1,000th USC point as Trojans hammer Santa Clara

JuJu Watkins is averaging 26.3 points per game at USC — no, not this season, but in her full USC career, which spans 38 games. She is something else.

JuJu Watkins reached and then passed the 1,000-point mark as a college basketball player on Friday afternoon. USC women’s basketball blasted Santa Clara, 81-50, to move to 4-0 on the young season. Watkins reached the milestone in her 38th game as a Trojan, which is quite remarkable when you do the math.

If you get out a calculator, 38 multipled by 20 equals 760. Right there, that tells you Watkins is averaging well above 20 points per game in every USC game she has played, going back to the start of her freshman season. Watkins is averaging 26.3 points per game — not this season, but in her entire USC career … and she’s just four games into her sophomore season! She is going to get even better. She is going to learn even more about how to break down opposing defenses. The 26.3-points-per-game average is not the ceiling. This begins to give basketball fans a clearer, sharper idea of how genuinely excellent JuJu Watkins has been in her USC career, which is closer to its beginning than its eventual end.

The really good news for USC beyond Watkins’ milestone on Friday against Santa Clara is that the defense is very consistent. USC is allowing an average of under 48 points per game this season. It has allowed more than 50 points in only one of its four games thus far. Assistant coach Beth Burns has her players focused at that end of the floor, while Lindsay Gottlieb’s offense is more of a work in progress.

The lingering concern for USC is 3-point shooting. The Trojans hit only 6 of 28 triples (21.4 percent) for the second time this season. USC has hit under 22 percent of its 3-pointers in three of its four games. That needs to improve. It is the one relatively consistent flaw for this team, which is checking all the other boxes.

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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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