Tag: Juju Watkins

JuJu Watkins outscores entire Oregon team in the first half of blowout win for USC

JuJu Watkins delivered another 30-point game for USC. The Trojans led by 22 after one quarter and cruised on Friday.

The JuJu Watkins story keeps getting better at USC. Watkins scored 33 points on Friday night in Eugene, leading USC to an 88-51 thrashing of the Oregon Ducks. USC’s starters were able to leave the game well before the final buzzer, giving the Trojans valuable rest before Sunday’s big game at Oregon State, a matchup of two top-15 teams.

Watkins has produced 10 games with 30 or more points, tying the iconic Cheryl Miller for the most such games in one season of women’s college basketball at USC. Watkins buried a long shot from the midcourt logo before halftime to give USC a 57-21 lead at the break. Watkins scored 24 points in the first half, three more than the entire Oregon team.

USC used a 19-0 run to grab a 29-7 lead after one quarter. The Trojans were never seriously threatened in this contest. They made short work of an inferior opponent and took another step toward their goal of getting a top-four seed in March Madness and hosting 2024 NCAA Tournament games on the opening weekend of the event at the Galen Center.

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Women’s basketball national scoring leaders as of Feb. 11 (and steals)

History is about to be made in women’s hoops.

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark needs only eight points to break the all-time NCAA women’s scoring record. That means this coming week will be historic. But let’s see how she stacks up with [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] of Notre Dame. We also

Trojans Wired podcast looks at USC women’s basketball and JuJu Watkins’ evolution

JuJu Watkins is amazing for doing what she does. She’s even more remarkable because she’s thriving under great pressure.

The story of JuJu Watkins is only just beginning, and yet it has already produced so many special chapters at USC. Watkins is just a freshman, and yet she is doing things many veteran basketball players fail to do in long careers.

Many talented players score a lot. Far fewer players with great talent are able to consistently rebound, pass, steal the ball, and block shots. JuJu does all those things.

Many talented players thrive on offense but slack off on defense. The legends of the game don’t do that. JuJu Watkins does not.

Many highly skilled basketball players coast on their talent and blow off their coaches because they think they know better or can get away with not having to max out on every play and every possession. JuJu Watkins respects USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb and is a determined player who wants to win championships more than anything else. Watkins wants to sacrifice and pay the price ultimate victory requires.

On our new USC women’s basketball podcast, we talked about the JuJu Watkins-Lindsay Gottlieb player-coach relationship. We also looked at the many USC role players who came up big over the past weekend against Stanford and Cal.

Here’s the show below:

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JuJu Watkins and Lindsay Gottlieb trust each other, the key to USC’s success

The superstar player trusts her coach. The coach trusts her best player to do the right thing. It’s working for USC WBB.

USC women’s basketball head coach Lindsay Gottlieb has gushed about JuJu Watkins from the beginning. Now other people are noticing. Everyone in the basketball world — not just the women’s basketball community — is still buzzing about Watkins’ 51-point masterpiece for USC against Tara VanDerveer’s Stanford Cardinal on Friday.

The 51 points are impressive without any context, but they become even more impressive with layers of context added: on the road. At Stanford. The No. 4 team in the country. The first-place team in the Pac-12. Coached by VanDerveer, a legend of the game.

The 51 points for Watkins came after her worst game of the season against Washington several days earlier. The 51 points came when USC had lost three of four and needed to turn its season around. The 51 points might have saved USC’s season, relative to the central goal of hosting NCAA Tournament opening-round games (by getting a top-four seed in March Madness).

Luca Evans of The Orange County Register noted that the trust and mutual respect between Watkins and head coach Lindsay Gottlieb are powerful and strong.

“It’s the mentality that’s underwritten every facet of this scintillating USC season. When top recruit Watkins unveiled her commitment live on ESPN on Nov. 15, 2022, in front of a packed crowd of family sporting Watkins-themed T-shirts, she could’ve easily announced she was headed to Stanford – a more established program in Watkins’ final three choices. Instead, she chose USC, a school that hadn’t advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament since 2006. She chose home. And she chose Gottlieb.

“’It is never lost on me,’ Gottlieb said Saturday. ‘Like, it is never not something that I think about, because I do think she’s different. She had a courage that I don’t think many people would have had. She had a belief in herself, and us, and in L.A. and USC.’”

“So Gottlieb has trusted in her, the same as Watkins has trusted in Gottlieb. And that’s meant – as Gottlieb has repeated multiple times – giving her freedom. Not stifling JuJu being JuJu. It was written in every shot Watkins dropped Saturday, scoring a near-unfathomable 51 of USC’s 67.”

Some coaches try to micromanage star players and damage the relationship between two of the most important people on a team. Gottlieb clearly has maintained Watkins’ trust, and it shows in how well — and how hard — Watkins is playing. This central relationship lies at the center of sustaining and improving USC women’s basketball. If this coach-player bond remains unbreakable, the Trojans are destined to be great.

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JuJu Watkins’ hatred of losing is exactly what makes her great at USC

JuJu Watkins lost to Washington on January 28. She did not leave the gym for the next several hours after that game.

This is the stuff of greatness. This is what commitment looks like. This is what it means to be dedicated to excellence and nothing less. JuJu Watkins is the embodiment of an athlete who will not accept anything less than the very best at USC.

Luca Evans of The Orange County Register dug up this gem after Watkins scored 51 points against Stanford last Friday:

“Postgame on Saturday, after an impromptu locker-room mosh-pit with her teammates in celebration, Watkins testified with a weary smile she had 24-hour access to USC’s gym.

“’I haven’t been able to sleep for these past couple weeks – well, past week, coming off some losses,’ Watkins said.

“The very night of the loss to Washington, Gottlieb chimed in, she got a call from a security guard at USC’s Galen Center, notifying her that Watkins was still in the gym.

“Want me to tell her no? Gottlieb recalled hearing.

“Let Ju be Ju, Gottlieb responded.”

That’s what separates JuJu Watkins from most other players. It’s what separates the iconic athletes from the very good ones, the superstars from the role players. This is why USC women’s basketball has a chance to be very special after years of irrelevance on the national scene.

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The JuJu Show: USC’s JuJu Watkins makes the cover of Slam Magazine

JuJu Watkins makes the cover of Slam Magazine, which sees her as a central figure in the future of basketball.

On Monday morning, Slam Magazine announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “the freshman everyone is talking about,” Juju Watkins, is a cover athlete for Slam 248.

The announcement comes after Watkins’ outstanding performance against No. 4 Stanford on Friday, where she had 51 of the 67 points the Trojans scored. Watkins scored only seven fewer points than the whole Stanford team (58). Her epic performance led USC to a huge victory.

While she might be humble about all the attention, there’s a reason everyone calls her “The Juju Show.” Watkins was so big in high school that Chris Brown and 2 Chainz would pull up to her games at Sierra Canyon to watch her play. The No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2023 has had legends such as LeBron James, whose son Bronny is currently a freshman on the USC men’s team, and USC all-time great Cheryl Miller attend her games. Her basketball brilliance has also been witnessed in person by fellow California natives James Harden and Paul George, who have given her nothing but high praise. Step onto the USC campus, and you’ll see JuJu’s No. 12 jersey in the school bookstore.

“I’ve always dreamt of playing for a college that I love and being able to have so much pride in where I go to college,” she tells us. “To finally be here and have made that decision and be confident [in it] is a dream come true.” Watkins said via Slamonline.com.

Watkins is posting 26.1 points per game, ranked just below Iowa superstar sensation Caitlin Clark for the highest scoring average in the nation.

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The legend of JuJu Watkins continues to grow at USC (again, and not for the last time)

She is playing like a superstar, but JuJu Watkins is creating the kinds of moments people never forget. It’s special.

Being a legend is not just about scoring a lot of points. Plenty of basketball players have scored copious quantities of points but have not become superstars. The formula for true greatness — on a scale which is larger than life, and which is remembered by generations of sports fans — transcends the box score and the stat sheet.

Greatness is about responding to adversity. Greatness is about lifting a team. Greatness is about paying the price for success and then attaining that success. Greatness is about forging a connection with fans and a community in ways which create a strong, unbreakable bond that becomes ingrained in the public memory.

JuJu Watkins scored 51 points against Stanford on Friday night. The display was hugely impressive in itself, on its own terms, but it’s the surrounding context which makes the moment legendary, as Luca Evans of the Orange County Register notes in his most recent piece on JuJu.

We’re going to share some great quotes from that article and offer some other visual snapshots of JuJu Watkins, an athlete who is quickly becoming a special USC Trojan with a level of resonance which is beginning to reach considerable proportions:

USC women’s basketball displays maturity, toughness in comeback win at Cal

USC didn’t get ambushed in Berkeley this year. It’s a newer better Trojan team.

The difference between the 2023 USC women’s basketball team and the 2024 version could be as simple as JuJu Watkins. That’s mostly true, but it’s not entirely true. Of course a team is much better than the year before when it adds a genuine superstar who can throw down 51 points against Stanford and then 29 more points in a Bay Area weekender against Cal. Watkins is reason number one why USC is such a better team this season compared to one year ago.

Yet, it’s not the whole story or explanation. USC’s role players are helping their superstar win games. This was somewhat true against Stanford on Friday. Even though no one shot the ball well other than JuJu, the whole team played great defense and made tough plays at that end of the floor.

Sunday in Berkeley against the California Golden Bears, we saw an even better version of the non-JuJu Trojans. Four non-JuJu USC players scored at least eight points. Five scored at least six points. USC’s defense — shredded in the first and third quarters at Cal — responded with an elite fourth quarter, allowing just eight points to the Bears in a 79-69 win. USC trailed by 13 and won by 10, a massive turnaround for a team which had a huge weekend near the San Francisco Bay. USC bounced back in a big way from its worst performance of the year against Washington one week ago.

As we noted, JuJu Watkins is the main reason this team is what it is. She scored 29 points and also contributed 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 blocked shots. JuJu was JuJu, doing everything for USC. However, her teammates were ready.

If you recall from Friday, three USC players fouled out. Two of them, Kaitlyn Davis and Rayah Marshall, took advantage of the fact that they did not play extended minutes on Friday against Stanford. They were fresh against Cal, and it really helped the Trojans. Davis played her best game in several weeks, with 10 points and 8 boards. Marshall had 9 points and 6 rebounds in a solid performance of her own.

USC’s defense allowed six made 3-pointers to Cal in the first quarter. The Trojans, who did have to work extremely hard against Stanford late on Friday, had a short turnaround for this game and were vulnerable to a sleepy start, which is exactly what happened. However, after that horrible defensive first quarter and some lapses in the third quarter, the Trojans locked down late, allowing just eight points to Cal in the final 10 minutes. Cal hit just one 3-pointer in the fourth quarter, and the Trojans — helped by six “found money” points from reserve Kayla Williams — pulled away for the closer-than-it-looked 10-point win.

What a difference a year makes for USC. The team which lost at Cal on a Sunday in 2023 was able to conquer Berkeley in 2024. Games that might have been lost last year are turning into wins this year.

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With three players fouled out, McKenzie Forbes helped JuJu Watkins prevail vs Stanford

JuJu Watkins is the main reason USC is winning, but it’s still a team game. McKenzie Forbes proved that vs Stanford.

Championship basketball runs primarily through players such as JuJu Watkins, who put a team on their back and own the biggest moments in crunch time. Watkins’ 51 points against Stanford carried USC and provided the best single-game performance of the women’s college basketball season. However, USC would not have won this game without McKenzie Forbes, a role player who stepped up in a moment of crisis.

USC had led Stanford by a double-digit margin, but three Trojans fouled out and the Women of Troy were both shorthanded and outsized late in the fourth quarter. The three players who fouled out — Rayah Marshall, Clarice Akunwafo, and Kaitlyn Davis — are USC’s primary frontcourt players with the size, length, and power to handle Stanford’s frontcourt. The Marshall-Akunwafo-Davis trio contained Stanford superstar Cameron Brink and emerging forward Kiki Iriafen. Neither Brink nor Iriafen felt comfortable at the offensive end of the floor. Both players shot poorly against the Trojans’ frontcourt defense.

However, with all three Trojans unavailable, USC was undersized and limited. Bench players were thrown into the fray. Defensive assignments changed. When Stanford cut a large deficit down to just two points, at 58-56, with only two minutes left, it was reasonable to think that USC would run out of gas and get caught just before the finish line.

McKenzie Forbes (not just JuJu) would not let that happen.

In the next 90 seconds, Forbes made a basket, grabbed a defensive rebound, and then collected an offensive board to lead to a JuJu made free throw to push that tenuous two-point lead to seven, at 63-56, essentially sealing the game. USC could have panicked. It also could have wasted Watkins’ incredible display. Forbes made the blue-collar plays to ensure the Trojans won on JuJu’s big night.

JuJu is the straw that stirs the drink for this team. No one denies that. However, the role players have to come up big in important moments if this team is going to make a deep run in March. McKenzie Forbes came to the rescue in USC’s hour of need.

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Watch every shot JuJu Watkins made in her 51-point performance against Stanford, which left college basketball fans in awe

Fans were scrambling to find a way to watch the Pac-12 Network on Friday night.

JuJu Watkins’ Friday night was simply incredible.

The USC freshman phenom poured in an astounding 51 points as the Trojans upset the No. 4 Cardinal in Maples Pavilion. While Watkins humbly brushed aside comparisons to Caitlin Clark, her accomplishment put her in an elite group of scorers in the sport’s history that include the likes of Elena Delle Donne, Kelsey Plum and Cheryl Miller.

And less than a week after Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo dominated UConn in Storrs, Conn., Watkins has seemingly pulled ahead again in the race for the National Freshman of the Year award.

In case you missed it, or couldn’t figure out how to get the Pac-12 Network, here’s every bucket that Watkins scored against Tara VanDerveer’s side on Friday:

It was a performance nothing short of being wildly impressive, and one we’ll be talking about for a while. It left women’s basketball fans in awe – and scrambling for a way to watch in real-time – on Friday night.

In what is likely the last season of the Pac-12 as we know it, Watkins is helping the league go out on a high note.