It’s a Tuesday night outside of downtown Los Angeles and I’m in a half-empty Galen Center on the University of Southern California campus. The whole place smells like movie-theater popcorn, sticky spilled soda, and, vaguely, sweat. The cheerleaders jumping up and down on the court, attempting to amp up the somewhat sleepy crowd, look like they could pass for middle schoolers. This is, in unmistakable and almost caricatured fashion, a college campus. But there’s a certain player on the floor, with an oversized bulbous bun atop her head, who is sparkling a little differently than everyone around her. She moves so fluidly, gets to her spots on the floor with such ease. It’s, frankly, just so very clear that she is operating in a different echelon than her peers. Even if you didn’t tell me JuJu Watkins was a budding superstar, I’d know it.
This year in particular, JuJu (government name: Judea Skies) Watkins’ stardom is markedly transitioning from bud to full bloom. You’d be hard-pressed to find a stretch of road in Los Angeles without the USC sophomore’s image on a Nike billboard, or a commercial block during a national NBA broadcast without her State Farm ad spot. With Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese having moved onto the WNBA last year, she’s arguably the biggest remaining name in college basketball, men’s or women’s, and her resumé is already impressive: Gatorade National Player of the Year, McDonald’s All-American Game MVP, Unanimous First-Team All American, WBCA Freshman of the Year, the list goes on and on.
