STANFORD, Calif. — On Sunday night, USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb got a call from a security guard asking whether to kick freshman guard JuJu Watkins out of the gym. Watkins was getting shots up following an off-night in the Trojans’ crushing three-point loss at home to Washington , their third defeat in four games.
“No,” Gottlieb told the security guard. “Let Ju be Ju.”
Fast-forward to Friday night, and Watkins didn’t just find her shot again — she cemented her status as the freshman of the year front-runner and even inserted herself into the player of the year conversation. On No. 4 Stanford’ s home floor, and against the winningest coach in the sport in Tara VanDerveer, Watkins dropped 51 points on 14-for-26 shooting from the field to lift the No. 15 Trojans over the Cardinal 67-58 in the teams’ final regular-season Pac-12 meeting.
Watkins’ performance, the first 50-point game in Division I this season, broke a school record and marked the second-most points in a Pac-12 game, behind only Kelsey Plum ‘s 57 against Utah in 2017.