Watkins adjusts to rising attention, plays her game
One of the more random assortments of people you’ve ever heard of shared the same room on Monday night.
They gathered inside USC women’s basketball’s locker room after they played Arizona, actor Will Ferrell and rapper Fabolous and WNBA Hall of Famer Tina Thompson, and there was almost no hypothetical situation that could be imagined in which these people would ever cross immediate paths. Except for one, the reality of the situation: they were here to watch JuJu Watkins, just as Chris Brown and Jason Sudeikis and other A-to-Z-listers have pulled up to the Galen Center this winter for a glimpse of the next big thing.
And as head coach Lindsay Gottlieb told it, in perhaps-imperfect detail — after USC’s 81-64 win over Arizona on Monday, USC alumnus Ferrell came up to Gottlieb, telling her about a text conversation he’d had with fellow funnyman Sudeikis.
Sudeikis
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texted.
“He’s like, ‘Of course I have,’” Gottlieb recalled Ferrell telling her. “(Sudeikis) is like, ‘I’m going tonight.’ (Ferrell’s) like, ‘I’m going Monday!’”
“I’m like, ‘They’re texting about JuJu?’” Gottlieb continued. “’What’s going on?’”
Indeed, the level of excitement around the program is something never lost on her, Gottlieb said — and only growing with each coming week, USC on a four-game winning streak as Watkins continues a historic run. Through 22 games, USC’s winning percentage (at 18-4) is its best since 1993-94, when former legend Cheryl Miller coached the Trojans to an Elite Eight run; Miller has been back loud and proud on the sidelines for this USC team, jokingly cuddling Ferrell on the JumboTron at the Arizona game.
The attention is a gift, to a blooming program stepping back into the national spotlight for the first time in decades. It’s also a curse, to Watkins, who as an 18-year-old freshman has perhaps more responsibility on her shoulders than any other player in the nation — period, full stop. As of
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Today: at Oregon, 7 p.m., Pac-12 Los Angeles
Sunday: at Oregon State, noon, Pac-12 Network
Thursday night, she ranks second in women’s college basketball in scoring — and averages the highest percentage of her team’s points of any other 20-point-per-game scorer.
Against Arizona, she was hounded by opposing point guard Jada Williams and shadowed by perimeter help any time she caught the ball in the halfcourt. Each new week is an adventure in adaptation for Watkins; she often starts slow, with 1-of-5-type lines, before she finds defensive gaps with her jumper and gets downhill in transition.
“I think just having patience in myself — I have so much trust in Coach Lindsay and my teammates, and they have trust in me, which also just gives me so much pride in how I play,” Watkins said Monday night, when asked about handling the increased attention both on and off the court. “And I think, just reminding myself to play my game will take me very far.”
Her game, though, has expanded in the matter of mere months. Watkins ranks first in usage rate in collegiate women’s basketball, as recorded by HerHoopStats. Understanding how to get others involved was always the next step in her development, frequent trainer and Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy said a couple months back. The ball control needs work — Watkins had seven turnovers against Arizona — but suddenly, she’s making advancedlevel reads out of the pick-and-roll and against a variety of coverages, particularly in zipping passes to the weak-side wing and corner.
After an up-and-down start in conference play, USC is currently tied for fourth in the Pac-12 after four straight wins; they’ll be tested hard into March, particularly in a game in Corvallis, Oregon Sunday against 11th-ranked Oregon State (20-3, 9-3 in Pac-12). And their fortunes will continue to rest on Watkins’ ability to adapt to, and grow through, the attention that comes her way.