The opposing fans jeered JuJu Watkins when she was shooting free throws.
They let out a pronounced groan when they thought she traveled. They booed even louder when, as the tension of the tight game rose, a Maryland player was whistled for a foul against her.
But the most telling reception Watkins heard Wednesday night came when she was introduced before the game for visiting USC.
At that moment, there was a loud burst of applause.
USC would defeat Maryland 79-74 in the top-10 women’s basketball matchup before more than 14,000 fans at Xfinity Center. Watkins scored a co-team high 21, but those numbers were only part of the full picture.
The Trojans had come south from Rutgers in New Jersey, where a crowd of 7,356, including dozens of young girls with their hair done up in “JuJu buns” atop their heads, had packed a smaller arena. By the time USC’s players walked off the court in Maryland, they were cheered off the court by a couple thousand more fans.
“JuJu’s really had a cultural impact,” head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said about her team’s 2-0 East Coast swing. “The girls and boys that come to the game, the way that it’s impacted our program – it’s hard to impact winning like this, right?
“She came and impacted winning. Got other great players to come. … They start to talk about that, and little girls can see them, and they can wear the bun, and they can aspire to be like these women.”
Watkins, a 6-2 sophomore guard, may be the brightest fixture of a sport that saw its national title game outdraw its men’s counterpart last season when South Carolina defeated Iowa.
“She’s built a following faster than Caitlin Clark even did,” says Howard Megdal, a longtime observer of the sport who is writing a biography about Clark that will published in June, “though that is partially a function of a vastly larger national profile for women’s basketball Clark helped grow.”
Clark, Iowa’s supernova guard, overtook the sports world last season as she broke Division 1 basketball’s all-time scoring record, was a model for young players for not only her poise and precision but also her humility.
But Watkins is showing them they can be so much more than a supremely talented player to have appeal as an athlete.
“I think it’s that combination of her incredibly polished play and how stylish she is in the way she plays and presents herself off the court,” Megdal says.
When we watch Watkins, we see soft jumpers, hard drives and head fakes, but also ways to showcase yourself that are more attainable for players in youth and high school sports. Here are four:
We can always be nice to those who support us, and we stand out when we aren’t
I practically ran into Watkins Wednesday night as she ducked into a tunnel just out of sight from the crowd before the game.
A woman who had floor access spotted her and asked for a selfie. Watkins stopped, crouched her 6-2 frame into the photo while using her arm to adjust the angle of the woman’s phone.
The 10-second moment was enough to give you the impression that the Watkins who showcases her talents before celebrity crowds in Los Angeles is the same person when you stop her during warmups.
“She’s so humble, she’s so kind,” says Raunda Williams, whose daughter, Laura, is a freshman forward for the Trojans.
Williams, the wife of Super Bowl 22 MVP and current Washington Commanders executive Doug Williams, was standing in line to get into the Maryland game with their high school aged daughter, Lee, in sub-freezing temperatures.
“She brings so much energy to every arena and people are coming,” Raunda Williams said of Watkins. “Even if they don’t root for USC, they’re coming to see her.”
Sports success is fleeting. The way we treat people last forever. Especially as young athletes, it’s those little snapshots that can define us.
I have seen kids brush past opposing coaches wishing to greet them, or ask their mom to carry their equipment to the car, because perhaps they feel their success entitles them to do so.
Be the one who shakes everyone’s hand, or who picks up the equipment for the coach at tryouts. These are also the moments where the coach might be watching you most intently.
The best coaches know that what you do when you think you are out of public view tells them the most about who you are.
The best player on the team can always improve
Ted Watkins Sr., JuJu’s great-grandfather, was a vibrant member of the United Auto Workers Union. In 1965, he founded the Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC), the same year as Watts Rebellion.
Watkins, through WLCAC, harnessed neighborhood and citywide support to rebuild and strengthen his community with a simple philosophy: “Don’t move. Improve.”
“It’s really taught me to value community and not never forget where you come from, and I think that that’s a big part of my story, and why I played so hard,” Watkins said in a video USC released last February, of growing up in Watts, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles.
JuJu Watkins came to USC as the top recruit in the county, choosing to try and uplift a program lined deep within the fabric of her home city. She helped lead USC to an Elite Eight appearance in 2023-24.
Watkins’ scoring average is slightly down from last season (24.9 to 27.1). But she is markedly improved since last season.
She appears more confident in her movements and decision-making. Statistically, she is making a higher percentage of shots and turning the ball over less often. She approaches every situation, every team, as an opportunity to get better.
“Freshman year, just kind of coming into it blindly, and then now having that perspective and being able to enhance my IQ is just the biggest part of that,” she said this month, “which comes with just learning the game and growing in all areas.”
Accomplished coaches, whether they are at the youth, collegiate or professional level, will tell you that when you make a team, or earn admission to a school, it’s when your true work begins.
As a youth athlete, there is always somebody out there who is better than you. But the best of the best at higher levels, like Watkins, operate with that mindset, too.
“Some players play with a little edge and anger,” says Emillio Roberts, another fan waiting to see Watkins on the frigid Maryland night. “She just plays hard. She’ll get knocked down, get back up. And that’s what you want to see. A player like that can go a long way.”
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Games are where we showcase our abilities. Practices are when we get better.
Roberts is a close family friend of Isaiah Collier, who starred for the Trojans’ men’s team last season and now plays for the Utah Jazz.
Collier’s father, Dwain, was recently giving Roberts a tour of USC’s campus when they opened a door at the sports facility, and, like with me, Watkins was right before them.
“She’s in there just working out by herself with her trainer, just getting it in, like nonstop,” Roberts recalled. “She probably could have went home right after practice, but she’s still in there getting those shots up. And that’s probably just stuff that people don’t really realize: she’s getting all the accolades and, you know, a lot of NIL stuff, but she really works hard, too.”
Teams that excel need to practice hard. At the youth level, that means everyone is focused. If you’re a coach, instead of holding laboriously long practices, you might focus on high-impact ones (think less talking and more game situations) that has everyone’s attention for a shorter period of time.
Gottlieb, USC’s coach, had to have that kind of concentrated effort before USC traveled to play at Connecticut in December.
“When you’re having practices around that schedule that they have, it’s really easy to keep their attention when they know we have UConn ahead,” Gottlieb said after USC pulled off its first-ever victory over the Huskies. “I said, ‘To play elite competition, our practices have to be elite,’ and I thought we had some of the best practices leading up. That makes you better.”
Related: USC pulls out tough road win at Maryland as it thinks of victims of fires back home
‘It flies on all our shoulders’: Even the best players lean on their teammates for support
At the end of the third quarter of the Maryland game, Watkins was dribbling at the top of the key, holding for the last shot. The crowd was on its feet.
She dribbled toward the paint, then found freshman guard Kayleigh Heckel in the right corner behind the 3-point line. Her defender had shifted toward Watkins, and Heckel had a clear path to the basket.
She drove and scored, converting a 3-point play that tied the game and shifted its the momentum.
Watkins’ assists are also slightly up (3.9. to 3.3.) this season. When you watch her on court, or away from it, you can see her connection with her teammates.
“I think playing with her, it brings a lot of confidence for our team,” USC forward Kiki Iriafen said after the Connecticut game. “Seeing her knock down shots and being fearless with the shots … she makes it look so easy.”
After the Maryland game, Watkins sat with Gottlieb and Iriafen, a Stanford transfer this season who was co-leading scoring with 21 points, as they spoke with the media. They laughed and interacted freely and easily with one another.
“I think it flies on all of our shoulders,” Watkins said in response to a questions about handling the responsibility of continuing to push the women’s game forward. “Nobody plays alone. I have a team behind me and players to share the platform with.”
Even at young ages, so many kids can hit the ball a mile, throw it hard or far down the field, or shoot the lights out on a court. But coaches also look for keepers on high school and college teams who can lift up their teammates.
When you aren’t playing well during a game or tryout, you can always congratulate someone else who is. Not only does it make us feel better, but the tension of games, and how you rely on one another, can give you friends that last long after your sports career is over.
Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He spent 10 years coaching his two sons’ baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents for a high schooler and middle schooler. His column is posted weekly. For his past columns, click here.
Got a question for Coach Steve you want answered in a column? Email him at sborelli@usatoday.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: JuJu Watkins a model for young players for her talent and humility
