ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — Juju Watkins starred with Joel Embiid in an AT&T commercial and threw out a first pitch at a Dodgers game.
Another big opportunity is at hand.
Southern California’s sensational sophomore has a chance to grab the torch that Caitlin Clark carried the past few years as the standard bearer for women’s college basketball.
“I wouldn’t really say pressure,” she said Wednesday at Big Ten media day. “So many great teams in this league, and I think my main focus is just winning with my team. And wherever that takes us, we’re grateful. I’m grateful for this opportunity.”
Watkins and USC come into their first season in the Big Ten with soaring expectations.
The Trojans made the Elite Eight last year in their deepest NCAA Tournament run in three decades and were picked by both the coaches and a media panel to win the conference championship. Watkins was voted Preseason Player of the Year coming off a record-setting season as a freshman, and the possibilities for her seem endless at a time when interest in the sport has never been higher.
Clark, with her flurry of 3-pointers from Stephen Curry range, paved that path the past four years at Iowa. She set a Division I record by averaging 28.4 points in her career and was the obvious choice to get drafted with the No. 1 pick by the Indiana Fever.
Watkins, meanwhile, was first-team, All-American last season. She finished second in the country to Clark in scoring at 27.1 points per game and set a national record for a freshman with 920 in all. USC routinely played to packed crowds with celebrities in attendance.
“I don’t know that there’s been a young African-American superstar in women’s basketball at this age be able to have this platform, and I think that’s gonna do a ton for communities both in L.A. and across the country,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “I wouldn’t bet against her to be able to handle anything. At the same, it’s our job to prep her for what might be coming and make sure she’s able to have joy and be a kid.”
She said Watkins showed last year she was ready to take women’s basketball “by storm.”
“That’s what she did off the top, with a grace and an authenticity that is very unique,” Gottlieb said. Obviously, she’s a very different human being, a very different player than Caitlin Clark. But I think similarly, there’s this thing of the expectations just keep getting bigger and bigger, and they keep delivering.”
Gottlieb said USC administrators reached out to Iowa with questions about security and how the school kept Clark safe. She also contacted Clark and plans to call former coach Lisa Bluder, who retired in May, for advice on how to handle such a high-profile player.
“Get her take on what she would do differently, what she did, what she had to learn and adjust to, just even relative to like autographs, on the road and timing, when you meet with your team — all those things,” Gottlieb said. “Why not help each other and be a resource, and we’re gonna learn as much as we can from them.”
Iowa coach Jan Jensen, a long-time assistant under Bluder, had some advice.
“In your house, you try to protect,” she said. “The world is gonna be rolling pretty fast and everybody’s gonna be talking and wanting Juju to continue to produce. I guess I would say that the big world out there can stay big, but in your world, keep it pretty small and tight.”
Watkins and USC are in a whole new world. So is the Big Ten with the arrival of the Trojans, UCLA, Oregon and Washington from the Pac-12. But with Clark now in the WNBA, the league has another torch carrier.
“It’ll be fun to watch her evolve,” said Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff, who saw Watkins score 32 in a season-opening loss to the Trojans in Las Vegas last year. “I think the Big Ten will give her even a bigger stage than what she was in. Couple that with being in Los Angeles, I think she’s gonna be somebody that’s gonna really help continue to drive the sport in a great direction.” ___
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