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The Athletic Selects USC’s JuJu Watkins As National Freshman of the Year
March 06, 2024 | Women's Basketball
The superstar freshman also picks up First Team All-America honors from <I>The Athletic</i>.
USC guard JuJu Watkins has secured a major national honor with The Athletic's selection of Watkins as National Freshman of the Year. It's the first time a USC women's basketball player has earned this award, making another indelible mark for Watkins in the USC history books in these early goings of her Trojan career. And on March 7, The Athletic also announced Watkins as a member of its All-America First Team — the first Trojan to pick up such accolades at the national level since 1997 when Tina Thompson earned All-America first-team honors from the USBWA and Basketball Weekly.
Watkins has been instrumental in USC's outstanding season to date, leading the No. 5 Trojans in scoring in 25 of the 27 games in which she's played while notching a new USC record with her 12 games with 30 or more points scored. The No. 2 scorer in the nation with her 27.8 points per game set another USC record with a 51-point outing in a USC road upset of Stanford, and that mark still stands as the most points scored by any player in the nation this season.
But Watkins provides more than just scoring for these No. 5-ranked Trojans. She's the team's second leading rebounder with 7.2 per game, and she's averaging 2.6 steals and 1.6 blocks per game. In fact, she is now one of just five Pac-12 players ever to tally at least 750 points, 150 rebounds and 50 steals in a season. And she is the first player to sweep the Pac-12 weekly awards (Player and Freshman) more than once in a season with her three sweeps this season.
Watkins and the Trojans are off to Las Vegas this week, carrying their highest-ever seed into the Pac-12 Tournament as the No. 2 seed. USC will open its postseason push in the Pac-12 quarterfinals at 6 p.m. on Thursday (March 7).
Watkins has been instrumental in USC's outstanding season to date, leading the No. 5 Trojans in scoring in 25 of the 27 games in which she's played while notching a new USC record with her 12 games with 30 or more points scored. The No. 2 scorer in the nation with her 27.8 points per game set another USC record with a 51-point outing in a USC road upset of Stanford, and that mark still stands as the most points scored by any player in the nation this season.
But Watkins provides more than just scoring for these No. 5-ranked Trojans. She's the team's second leading rebounder with 7.2 per game, and she's averaging 2.6 steals and 1.6 blocks per game. In fact, she is now one of just five Pac-12 players ever to tally at least 750 points, 150 rebounds and 50 steals in a season. And she is the first player to sweep the Pac-12 weekly awards (Player and Freshman) more than once in a season with her three sweeps this season.
Also this week, Watkins was selected as one of five finalists for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, which goes to the top shooting guard in the nation, and she was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year.Let's go Ju ‼️
— USC Women's Basketball (@USCWBB) March 7, 2024
JuJu has been named First Team All-America by the Athletic! pic.twitter.com/2yaRmDqjUJ
Watkins and the Trojans are off to Las Vegas this week, carrying their highest-ever seed into the Pac-12 Tournament as the No. 2 seed. USC will open its postseason push in the Pac-12 quarterfinals at 6 p.m. on Thursday (March 7).
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