JuJu Watkins continues to play well. USC women's basketball most recently defeated Santa Clara by a final score of 81-50. Watkins scored 22 points to go along with five assists, five rebounds and four steals in the victory. The USC women's basketball star also surpassed Caitlin Clark as the fastest player in the Power 4 to reach 1,000 career college basketball points, per I talk hoops on X (formerly Twitter).
Ryan Kartje of The Los Angeles Times reports that Watkins has only played in 37 games with USC. She has truly played at an elite level with the team. Watkins looks to be a future WNBA superstar. For now, she is emerging as one of the best players in all of college basketball.
Clark enjoyed a tremendous college basketball career. She consistently set records, something that continued into her rookie season in the WNBA. In fact, Clark even finished fourth in WNBA MVP voting as a rookie in 2024. Perhaps Watkins is on a similar career path.
JuJu Watkins' college basketball career
Watkins is still only 19 years old. Nevertheless, she displayed signs of becoming a star during her freshman season. She played in 34 games during her freshman season and averaged 27.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.6 blocks per game. Watkins' ability to make an immense impact in multiple facets of the game made her even more of a star.
Her scoring prowess, though, has caught the attention of the entire college basketball world. It is clear that Watkins is among the best scorers in women's college basketball at the moment. Opposing defenses are trying to find an answer for her, but they are not finding too much success.
Watkins will look to continue to lead USC moving forward. USC women's basketball will be especially intriguing to follow over the next couple of years with Watkins leading the way.
USC improved their record to 4-0 as a result of Friday's victory over Santa Clara. They will have their most notable challenge of the season so far in their next game, though, as No. 3 USC will play No. 6 Notre Dame. The Notre Dame-USC clash, which projects to be quite exciting, is scheduled for November 23.
For now, JuJu Watkins and USC will focus on preparing for the game following their big win on Friday.