JuJu Watkins was everything and the only thing. On Thursday night against No. 1 UCLA, she was the beginning, hitting three threes in the first quarter to send that awful she’s got it tonight feeling through the Bruins’ stomachs. She was the middle, literally all of it. When the sophomore guard found teammate Kennedy Smith alone at the rim in transition to start the fourth quarter, Smith’s layup was USC’s first non-Watkins field goal since the end of the first. And then she was the end. In the fourth quarter, the No. 6 Trojans trailing and gasping for breath, she blocked three shots in the span of a minute and scored two quick baskets to regain the lead her team had lost early in the third.
Not until the two-minute mark of the fourth quarter did any of her teammates finally break double digits. But by that point, there was no mystery left. JuJu Watkins had spoiled the plot: No matter how many times UCLA took control, no matter how many layups her teammates fumbled, no matter how sludgy the offense got, she would not be losing tonight. End of story.
Watkins, typically shy and sheepish at the postgame press conference, explained away the 38 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and eight (!) blocks as her playing “just like a kid out there.” I will admit I initially found this a funny contention. If anything is striking about the experience of watching Watkins, it is her game’s adultness. In pickup parlance, hers is “the old man game.” The change of pace, the craft, the balance, the slow-motion fluidity, the arsenal of fakes and counters, the savviness in getting to the line, the casual confidence—she has it all! When I have sung her praises in the past, it has generally been on the basis that she is not like a kid out there. But Thursday’s game forced me to consider that I’d been doing her a disservice by letting her pro readiness limit my imagination. Old men don’t grow, but kids do. And the 19-year-old Watkins, two years from declaring for the WNBA draft, is still in many ways just like a kid out there.
She still has to weather the turbulence of growing up. Watkins may have played the best game of the college season last night, but she was also breaking free from a bad shooting slump. In the four games before she went 6-for-9 from outside, her three-point stats were 1-of-6; 1-of-4; 1-of-7; and 1-of-8. She’s a quick learner: In the second half, she began to read UCLA’s tendencies on offense and revealed herself to be maybe the best help defender in the game with those eight blocks. Alongside center Clarice Akunwafo, Watkins held fellow National Player of the Year candidate Lauren Betts to a season-low 38.5 field goal percentage. (The 6-foot-7 Betts is averaging 62 percent shooting on the season.)
And because she really is just like a kid out there, I still find myself worrying for her, wondering if what USC asks of Watkins every night is fair or sustainable. She played like a superstar last night, she said, because her team needed it. Perhaps she just owed them this favor: In their last few games, the other Trojans have helped Watkins through her slump. To win and go far in March, they’ll all have to find the right balance. It takes more than one pair of hands to raise a banner.
