“I never did that in my life, that’s crazy”: Rayah Marshall commends JuJu Watkins’ impressive record in USC practice
USC Trojans' Kiki Iriafen, JuJu Watkins and Rayah Marshall gave fans a glimpse of their women's basketball facility in the latest collaboration video with Bleacher Report on Tuesday. After giving a tour of their pre-game hangout spot, huddle area and more, Marshall shed light on a commendable record Watkins achieved in the summer practices.
Marshall revealed that during the Trojans' summer conditioning practices, the players were supposed to run up and down the court 20 times. With 22 seconds as the threshold, Watkins treaded the court in just 18 seconds.
"So, we actually just got finished doing our summer conditioning," Marshall said. "You have to run up down, up down - 22 seconds, 20 times. JuJu, being who she is, she ran up down up down 18 seconds. I never did that in my life that's crazy and we had 20 of them." (3:12)
The guard is one of the biggest and fastest-growing names in the women's basketball landscape. According to Trojans assistant coach Beth Burns, Watkins takes pride in constantly striving to become a better basketball player and being the face of the USC program.
"JuJu respects the game. She doesn't want to have a flaw in her game," Burns said to ESPN. "She holds herself to a standard that no coach could."
JuJu Watkins is coming off one of the best freshman seasons in women’s basketball, breaking the all-time freshman scoring record with 920 points. Doing so, she also led the Trojans to its first Elite Eight since 1994.
JuJu Watkins focused on her left hand this summer
JuJu Watkins was the second on the scoring leaderboard last season, averaging 27.1 points and 7.3 rebounds. However, the guard noticed how teams strategized to prevent her from going right.
With that, after a minor procedure on her right hand, Watkins focused on getting her left hand better. The ability to drive both ways immediately makes her an improved offensive threat and also opens up areas to attempt more balanced jump shots.
Watkins worked with former Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy this summer. She was also spotted with Kyrie Irving in August and DeMar DeRozan in September.