When JuJu Watkins walks out of the tunnel and into the Galen Center, she looks calm. Her USC teammates smile and laugh during starting lineup announcements, but Watkins remains stoic. No one means more to her team than Watkins. Both need her tonight in order to knock off the country’s No. 1 team, undefeated UCLA.
Watkins hasn’t been herself lately. Over the last four games, including an upset loss to unranked Iowa, Watkins struggled scoring, at least by her standards. She averaged and shot 30.7 percent during the stretch, just 16 percent from beyond the arc.
During that time the Player of the Year race seemed to shift, centering around UCLA’s Lauren Betts and Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo. And as a team, the Trojans’ loss to Iowa on Feb. 2 dropped them to second place in the Big Ten, behind the Bruins. To claim the top spot they’d need to do something they hadn’t done since 1983: Beat a No. 1 team. To do so, they’d need a generational performance from Watkins.
Luckily, that’s her specialty.
Watkins has never shied away from a big moment. She set that tone when she chose to stay home and rebuild the USC program rather than commit to an established power like South Carolina or Stanford. And on Friday, as she led her No. 6 Trojans to a 71-60 victory over previously undefeated UCLA, Watkins added another piece of lore to her ever-growing legend. She was the first Division I player with 6 threes and 6 blocks in a game since 2001 and the first player in the last 20 years to record 35 points, 5 blocks and 5 assists in the same game. Watkins finished with 38 points, 11 rebounds, eight blocks and five assists — an unprecedented statline for an unprecedented player.
And after the game was won and the struggles were seemingly behind her, Watkins showed her humanity.“It’s really a dream come true,” she said after the game. “I’m really just a kid out there, living out my dreams.”
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And with star-status comes responsibility. Watkins is always going to be under a microscope, but she’s learning to handle the extra attention. “There is a lesson in everything,” she said. “And for me that is to always stay joyful on the court.”
As for the so-called struggles, Watkins seemed to be the only one within the program that noticed a drop off.
“I didn’t realize she was struggling, until now,” teammate Clarice Akunwafo said with a laugh. “Everyday, she shows up, competes and gives her best. You see that on the court.”
In the win over UCLA, her best was even better than usual.
Everyone knows Watkins can score. She opened her college career with a 32-point performance last season and had 12 30-plus point games as a freshman, including her record-setting 51-point outburst against Stanford. But in the midst of her smooth jumper and ferocious attacks to the rim, Watkins’ defensive prowess is often overlooked. Not on Friday. Despite a shining performance from JuJu Watkins the offensive sniper, JuJu Watkins the defensive stopper was the star of the show.
For most of the second half, USC opted to go single coverage on Betts, UCLA’s 6-foot-7 junior center. Akunwafo, Rayah Marshall and Kiki Iriafen rotated, each playing a few minutes on Betts at a time, with Akunwafo doing the bulk of the work. But stopping a player of Betts’ caliber takes more than just a solid one-on-one defender.
Watkins praised Betts’remarkable skill set and efficiency around the rim. The junior is averaging 19.9 points, while shooting 63.1 percent from the field. To beat UCLA, you have to find a way to slow down Betts, and though USC didn’t stop her completely – she finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds – they found a way to cut off her scoring in the fourth quarter. Betts didn’t make a shot in the final frame, largely because of Watkins’ help defense.
In the fourth quarter, when USC trauled 52-49, Watkins had three blocks in a one-minute stretch. Then, she hit a jumper to pull her team within one point and finally gave USC the lead on a steal and score just 24 seconds later. She had five blocks in the quarter and eight in the game, many of which came on the much taller Betts.
Akunwafo played the primary defensive role on Betts, but just when the UCLA center would turn to make a move, taking her eye off the ball for a second, Watkins would strike.
“I didn’t plan on having that many blocks, but anything we need to win, that’s what I’m going to do,” Watkins said. “It’s not really a calculated thing, it’s more of a feel for the game.”
USC outscored UCLA 24-8 in the final quarter to close out the game and hand UCLA its first loss of the season. When the buzzer sounded, the Galen Center responded in an eruption of cheers as Watkins high-fived and hugged her supporters. It’s just a regular-season game, but the victory had big implications. Now USC is in first place in the Big Ten with momentum heading into the final four games of the regular season and another resume-boosting win that will increase the team’s chances for a No.1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The Trojans are going to enjoy this one.
“I think it’s important in a season that’s a long journey, to find joy and recognize the really cool moments when we have them,” head coach Linday Gottlieb said. “We are certainly going to remember JuJu’s heroic shot-making, effort and intensity, especially coming after the million questions that she gets when it’s not perfect out there.”
That’s perhaps the biggest takeaway from the win: JuJu Watkins is back. Though if you ask Akunwafo or the sold out Galen Center crowd, she never really left.
She looks up and sees Sanaa Lathan, who played Monica Wright in the USC-based movie Love & Basketball in the crowd. She won’t say it now, but that means something to Watkins. She’s energized for this matchup, excited to play the game she loves, and in awe of the star-studded crowd. But her expression doesn’t betray any of those emotions. Not until the job is done.
