If you’re not already aboard the JuJu train, it makes a stop in Palm Desert next week and it’s a perfect opportunity for desert basketball fans to hop on.
JuJu Watkins is a 19-year-old megawatt star in women’s college basketball, and she and her USC teammates will play two games at Acrisure Arena during Thanksgiving week.
Watkins, a Los Angeles native whose first name is Judea, followed up one of the greatest high school careers in Southern California history by exploding on the scene as a freshman for the Trojans last year. She set the NCAA freshman scoring record, led USC to the Elite Eight and was a first-team All-American. Not bad for an 18-year-old.
To go with her tremendous skill, Watkins also has impeccable timing. Her emergence coincides with the unprecedented leap in popularity of women’s basketball as both the NCAA and WNBA are seeing record-breaking attendance and viewership numbers.
“It’s great the game is growing, and I’m glad that I’m able to be in this space now in women’s basketball,” Watkins said in an exclusive interview with The Desert Sun. “We wouldn’t have gotten here without the women before who paved the way for us, but it’s great that we’re reaping all the benefits and I’m just excited to see the game continue to grow.”
The women’s game has grown in popularity to the point where Watkins is officially a celebrity in her own right, but she said she still gets caught off guard when people she considers “real” celebrities know who she is.
“It’s always cool, always shocking to see the kind of random people that know me, but it’s great to know that women’s basketball is getting the attention it deserves, and a lot of times it’s people that you wouldn’t think watch women’s basketball,” Watkins said, recalling a few of the famous people she’s heard from. “I would say like Usher, and just crazy-famous people, John Legend, and I’m like ‘What’s going on?’ It’s so crazy that people like that know who I am.”
Desert basketball fans can see Watkins and the Trojans in person on Wednesday, Nov. 27 and Friday, Nov. 29 at Acrisure Arena. It’s part of the 21-team Acrisure Series which includes seven women’s teams and 14 men’s teams playing over four days. The USC women will play Seton Hall on Wednesday and Saint Louis on Friday with both games starting at 4 p.m. Tickets are still available at acrisurearena.com.
Her game
What makes Watkins an almost unstoppable scorer is her combination of size, ball skill and shooting touch. She is 6-foot-2 with a strong build, but has the ball skills of a point guard. She can score around the basket with her size, she can dribble-drive and pull up in the mid-range and she can knock down 3-pointers.
After making the CIF-SS Open Division championships as a freshman (with Windward High) and then winning a CIF-SS title as a junior and senior at Sierra Canyon, she was the No. 1 recruit in her class.
Watkins lived up to that hype with perhaps the greatest freshman year in college basketball history. She averaged 27.1 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists for a Trojans team that went to the Elite Eight. Before she arrived, USC hadn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2006.
She was already turning heads on the West Coast, but it was a game on Feb. 2 of this year that catapulted her into more of a national spotlight. She scored 51 points to lead USC to a 67-58 win over No. 4 Stanford — the most points by a freshman in college basketball since 2010. Two weeks later, she scored 42 in a win over No. 11 Colorado, and a legend was born.
Perhaps because of her SoCal roots and the fact that she plays with a scorer’s mentality, Watkins’ game is often compared to Kobe Bryant. Watkins, however, points to a WNBA legend as someone she looks up to and styles her game after in some ways.
“For me, I would say one of my favorite players is Candace Parker,” Watkins said, referencing the three-time WNBA champion and two-time WNBA MVP who was also a No. 1 recruit coming out of high school. “I want to be as versatile as she is and I’m still working on that. She had that 1 through 4 kind of repertoire that I try to have in my bag. So I would say Candace.”
That “1 through 4 repertoire” she mentioned — being able to play four different positions at point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward — is what makes Watkins such a problem to guard.
USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb gushed about her young star, explaining both her basketball acumen and her intangible qualities.
“She’s got it all, really. She’s incredibly explosive with the power and size of a forward but a skillset where she can do anything with a ball in her hand,” Gottlieb said. “She finishes great through contact, shoots it well and is only going to get better. She’s also an incredible teammate, very magnetic, cares about the team first even with all the star power she has. It’s really remarkable to be around her. Just a true winner. She cares about winning above all else, and she’s really fun to coach.”
Handling the spotlight
There have been amazing women’s basketball players before, but they didn’t have to grow up in the current landscape of social media toxicity, navigating NIL responsibilities, demands on your time from unprecedented TV coverage and fan interaction, and, oh yeah, being a full-time student-athlete.
With all that in mind, Gottlieb has been proactive this offseason to help her star. The Trojans’ coach reached out to the University of Iowa and the Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark herself to find out what they learned about helping their superstar navigate this new women’s basketball world.
“This is an unprecedented level of attention because of where women’s basketball is now, and obviously Caitlin Clark had a unique experience and we’re just trying to be as prepared as we can to help JuJu navigate the next three years,” Gottlieb said. “So I feel like if I haven’t been through something before and somebody else has, why not?
“We asked them about security, we asked them about autographs like when do you do it, do you have a set kind of system, just information gathering. And I was able to connect with Caitlin herself. She made herself available to basically talk through handling some of the pressures and the attention. I just felt like if there’s information out there that could help me help JuJu I would want to have it.”
Gottlieb said “next three years” because although Watkins’ game is WNBA ready, she will play in college through her senior year based on WNBA eligibility rules. A U.S.-born player must turn 22 in the year of that draft. Watkins won’t turn 22 until 2027 so, as the rules are right now, that would be after her senior year at USC.
Of course in this day and age with NIL deals available, a player of Watkins’ fame can still make plenty of money before she turns pro. Watkins already has NIL sponsorship deals with many of the heavyweight companies out there. The list includes Nike, Gatorade, AT&T, Celsius, Dove, Ritz and Wells Fargo to name a few.
So during the season you’ll see Watkins on the court, you’ll see in her plenty of commercials, but there is one place you won’t find her — on social media. Along with well-meaning fans, there can be a lot of toxic trolls on social media sites, something megawatt celebrity players like Clark and Angel Reese have had to deal with.
“Yeah, unfortunately that is part of the game, and you have to have a sort of resilience to ignore things like that even though it’s hard,” Watkins said. “For me personally, during the season I’m just completely off social media so that definitely helps, but I feel like I have a strong, I guess, self-confidence and I try not to let anybody come between that.”
The 2024-25 season
In four games this season, Watkins is averaging 21.5 points per game for the 4-0 Trojans who are ranked No. 3 in the latest AP Poll. She might not be called on to score as much as she did last year, because this is a Trojans team that is much more complete after adding talented transfer Kiki Iriafen from Stanford who is expected to be one of the first players chosen in next year’s WNBA draft.
Already this season, the Trojans set the school single-game scoring record in a 124-39 win over Cal State Northridge. They squeaked by No. 20 Ole Miss 68-66 in a game played in Paris to open the season in their only true test thus far.
Expectations are high, but this group is ready.
“Still getting used to each other so that will be a process, but I love the energy and the vibe here, we’re looking good for sure,” Watkins said of the team and the addition of Iriafen who is averaging over 17 points. “She’s such a great player and key to this year’s team so we’ll continue to build our camaraderie together and it will be beautiful, so I’m excited to see what happens.”
That excitement has even drifted down the hall at the Galen Center at USC to the men’s basketball team.
“I see our women’s team and they have an opportunity to play for a national championship,” said new Trojans men’s head coach Eric Musselman. “You talk about JuJu Watkins’ talent and you talk about the addition of Kiki and they’ve got a chance. JuJu is probably the most popular athlete on campus so we’re right down the hall from them and hoping they can win a natty this year.”
Shad Powers is a columnist for The Desert Sun. Reach him at shad.powers@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: JuJu Watkins of USC women’s basketball is must-see entertainment
