Ranked no.1 recruit of her class by ESPN, JuJu Watkins saw no shortage of offers from top programs. South Carolina and Stanford were among the front runners for the guard who had put up a 60-point and 21 rebounds performance on Sierra Canyon Senior night. You would think the answer would be easy, but Watkins took her time, even as everyone in her class had committed. “I want to make sure it was 1,000 percent where I wanted to go,” she had said. All those hours resulted in her joining the USC Trojans and the factors were simple.

Watkins, alongside her now-coach Lindsay Gottlieb, joined sports reporter Sarah Spain on her recent episode of “Good Game with Sarah Pain” podcast, to discuss all things basketball. With the player-coach duo in the room, Watkins was asked, “You could have gone anywhere to play. South Carolina, Stanford, high on the list. Why did you end up choosing USC?”

It wasn’t a single factor impacting JuJu’s decision. “You know, for so many reasons I chose USC,” she began. “But I think one of the biggest things that stood out was just the culture here, the staff, coach Lindsay, all the assistant coaches. I just got a really good vibe here and you know I kinda felt like everything fell into place and perfect timing in making my decision.”

Dawn Staley’s South Carolina and Stanford, ranked no.1 and 2, respectively had made it to the final list of the young talent. The Gamecocks were even the defending champions that year and with a promising program as such, even Gottlieb agrees, it could have been a tempting choice. But USC was 10 minutes away from where she grew up and the coaching staff, as Watkins mentioned, made quite the effort, sealing the deal.

“In women’s basketball, it’s exceedingly rare for a top player to go a program that’s not already established… It kind of almost guarantees you are going to Final Four. So I think, for JuJu to believe in herself and bet on herself is pretty significant,” the Trojans HC says.

USC carried a rich legacy, having produced legends like Cheryl Miller, Cynthia Cooper, Lisa Leslie, and Tina Thompson. However, the once-dominant program had fallen, struggling to recreate its glory from the 1990s. By the time Watkins was making her decision, the Trojans hadn’t even made an NCAA tournament appearance in nearly ten years. Gottlieb was aware of the status and hence revealed the staff put in efforts to present the star guard with a vision that no one had seen yet.

She was worried about the defeats and only hundreds in the audience, but communicating the vision and building the bond seemed to be the formula.“Just building the relationship and together kind of saying, ‘okay, what can this become if you come here,'” Gottlieb conveyed. Well, it worked.

JuJu Watkins putting the program on the map, alumnus applauds

JuJu Watkins did not require a championship-winning team to make a name for herself. Joining USC presented a chance to write the next great chapter for her and the program as a whole.

Her freshman year, Watkins averaged an impressive 27.1 points per game, trailing only behind Caitlin Clark in scoring. Her 920 points not only set a Division I freshman record but also marked the highest single-season total in USC history. Beyond scoring, Watkins did it all—leading the Trojans in assists (3.3 per game) and steals (2.3), while ranking second in rebounds (7.3) and blocks (1.7).

DeMar DeRozan, Sacramento King’s power forward and former player of the USC Trojans stated, “She’s not just putting [USC] on the map; it’s putting all of L.A. on the map, especially for women’s basketball. It’s incredible to see the things that she’s doing, and she hasn’t even reached, in my opinion, the heights of where she could really get to.”

Helping the Trojans to first Elite Eight appearance since 1994, DeRozan wasn’t wrong. She has now a self-prduced documentary on herself, historic deals with Gatorade and Nike, and a tag as the youngest investor in ‘Unrivaled’, the new 3×3 women’s basketball league. South Carolina could have been a glorious path, no doubt, but a self-paved spoke loud.