"We should be talking about JuJu Watkins the way we talked about Caitlin Clark": Stephen A. Smith gives his two cents
Stephen A. Smith said on ESPN's "First Take" on Monday that JuJu Watkins should be talked about like Iowa legend and Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark. Watkins is a superstar sophomore for the USC Trojans, while Clark is the all-time NCAA scoring leader who took Iowa to two NCAA championship games.
"We should be talking about her the way we talked about Caitlin Clark last year. JuJu's special," 👏 , the ESPN sports talk show tweeted Smith's comment.
Shannon Sharpe admired Watkins' skillset, pointing out that she can do almost everything.
"She's a well-polished basketball player at the women's level," Sharpe said.
Watkins scored 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range, to lead the USC Trojans to a 72-70 win over UConn on Saturday.
She also tallied six rebounds, five assists, one steal and three blocks to outclass Huskies' counterpart, Paige Bueckers, in a marquee showdown between two of the top women's college basketball superstars this season.
JuJu Watkins, USC climb to No. 4 in women's AP Top 25
The USC Trojans move up to No. 4 in the Associated Press women's college basketball poll on Monday.
The JuJu Watkins-led team climbed from seventh following a 72-70 victory over UConn in a rematch of their Elite Eight clash in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
Watkins knows the significance of the victory against UConn to USC's aspirations to claim the national title this season.
“It feels great to get the dub always. I think it hit a little different knowing the history of last year and how they sent us home,” Watkins said after her team beat UConn for the first time in history.
USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb also spoke about the importance of picking up a win over the Huskies, who are led by 11-time national champion coach Geno Auriemma.
“It doesn’t matter to me that they haven’t won a championship in a couple years. There’s still a way that they prepare, a way that they play, that makes you better, and it made us better,” Gottlieb said.
UCLA, South Carolina and Notre Dame, which has beaten USC and UConn, occupy the top three spots in this week's AP Poll. The Bruins garnered 30 first-place votes from a select panel of AP writers covering the women's college basketball beat. The Gamecocks and the Fighting Irish had a first-place vote each.
Texas and LSU were in fifth and sixth place, respectively, while the Huskies dropped to seventh. Rounding out the Top 10 are Maryland, Oklahoma and Ohio State.