Who is JuJu Watkins? Media hyped teenager is trying to break Caitlin Clark’s cherished record

JuJu Watkins says it is goal which she keeps in the back of her mind.

That goal is to break the NCAA all-time mark scoring recordcurrently held by Caitlin Clark. That is a statistically realistic goal for her.

“Of course I’m always on the beat,” Watkins told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. “The goal is to continue producing at this level, and as efficiently as I can.”

Watkins played the 50th game of her college career in a 79-74 win over Maryland on Wednesday night, giving her a career total of 1,318 points through her first 50 games. Clark scored 1,328 points in the first 50 games of her college career. Watkins surpassed Clark in career scoring after a 40-point game against California Baptist on Dec. 3, but slowed over the next eight games compared to the same stretch in Clark’s sophomore season.

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Still, Watkins has the advantage of potentially playing more games in his career with the expanded Big 10, compared to Clark’s, and potentially more games in the postseason.

But even with that competitive pace, Watkins only “wishes” he could play like Clark, who is a far better three-point shooter.

I wish I could have played like her, Watkins said.

Watkins also has more opportunities to do what Clark never could in college – win a national championship game. That first opportunity could come as early as March of this year. Watkins has led her team to a 15-1 start and a top-four national ranking. They just have to get past the big sister in town, as No. 1 rival UCLA is undefeated, with two late-season matches against Watkins.

Clark’s direct involvement may or may not play a role in whether Watkins ends up doing any of that. At some point this season, or any in the future, Watkins has the option to ask Clark a question.

“I met her once,” says Watkins. “She offered her number and said if I ever had any questions, she would answer them.”

Watkins added, “It’s probably just going to be an instigated thing,” when she reached out.

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She could ask a lot when the time comes. It might not even have anything to do with playing basketball. At only 19 years old, Watkins has already been declared a subcultural icon.

She has a devout and visible following in her home community of Southern California and has taken the reins as the most popular player in the college game, nationally, since Clark’s departure to the pros.

In her first East Coast trip as a player in the Big Ten Conference for USC’s season opener, Watkins made a stop in New Jersey for a 50-point victory against a Rutgers team reeling from dysfunction mysteriously benched by its star player. However, almost the entire crowd stayed the entire game to watch Watkins.

She scored 21 points at Maryland on Thursday before fouling out, beating an undefeated top-10 team in front of a loyal crowd of many of her own fans, with a national audience watching on Fox Sports.

“The attention hasn’t always been there, so just to see eyes on it and people who respect the sport more, and young girls playing the sport more, it’s a dream come true,” Watkins said, crediting Clark for bringing the attention.

Before playing in front of a home court like an away crowd thousands of miles from home, Watkins’ dream had many rough patches along the way.

Controversial NBA star Draymond Green made Watkins vomit through a strenuous workout in high school

Watkins remembers all the hard times. One particularly memorable moment occurred during the 2020 COVID-19 quarantine. Watkins was just a sophomore in high school and admitted that she was probably out of shape due to lifestyle restrictions during the pandemic.

“I was out of shape, I was so out of shape,” Watkins said.

So Golden State Warriors point guard Draymond Greene came knocking with a workout offer.

“I’ll never forget it,” Watkins said of the experience.

Watkins said Green’s drill had her dribbling up and down the court and shooting the ball over and over again until she threw up.

“I’m done,” Watkins said, adding that she didn’t even talk to him after practice. – I don’t think I could even speak, honestly.

Green talked about this drill with Watkins during an episode of his podcast in February.

“It’s not a typical NBA practice,” Green said.

“You go shoot some videos and you move on to the next one like we did and she came to our training and on the first day as you could tell her skill was there and like everything but she struggled a little bit with practice and as you know, I’m pushing her like ‘hey come on Ju, you got it, come on'”

Green said he saw other athletes refuse to come the next day after the first session, but Watkins returned because of the extra penalty.

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“I’ve had NBA players come to practice, throw up, not come back, you know. I had, I saw all kinds of guys, and she came back the next day, and I was like, young lady has a future in this game,” he said.

What happened next?

Watkins went on to have such a strong sophomore season amid the pandemic crisis that she won the 2020 Sports Illustrated Kids SportsKid of the Year award. Her reputation really began to spread. She went on to win Gatorade National Player of the Year and Naismith Prep Player of the Year and became the top-rated 2022 college recruit.

She shocked the nation when she turned down an offer to play for Dawn Staley in South Carolina, instead staying home in Los Angeles and playing for USC.

Then came what she calls the most difficult experience of her life.

“Adjusting from high school to college, and getting used to the rigorous schedule of it all, it was a big adjustment for me. It was a big change,” she said. – It gave me a new perspective on life.

Watkins didn’t go into too much detail about what that adjustment looked like. However, the numbers suggest that she was able to adapt in time for the start of her first season. She was on pace to potentially immediately break Clark’s record with a historic freshman year and has stayed on track ever since.

Watkins is a descendant of a prominent labor rights leader — generations later, she wants to see players like her get more out of the game

A period of growth for women’s basketball is also a time of diligence for players like Watkins. She is keenly aware of the importance of players retaining leverage as they negotiate their compensation, rights and privileges from the WNBA and NCAA.

“It’s important to stand up for our rights, especially in this area as a woman,” she said. “That’s where real change comes in, the ability to express our opinions and change things that don’t seem right to us.”

In 2024, WNBA players gained access to charter flights for the first time. Now the players’ union, the WNBPA, is bringing the league back to the bargaining table. The union voted to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in October, and the league could face a shutdown if a new deal isn’t reached by the end of the 2025 season.

The next CBA the union is negotiating will determine how many rights and benefits Watkins will receive as a player when she enters the WNBA in 2027 or later. So, he is rooting for the union to get as much as possible, especially after waiting for charter flights.

“Charter flights, that’s long overdue,” Watkins said. “This is what these women deserve, they work so hard, the least they can get is rent for their games.”

Watkins’ passion for it is rooted in her family history. Her great-grandfather, Ted Watkins, organized and founded the Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC) in 1965. He organized it just months before the infamous “Watts Rebellion”, also known as the “Watts Uprising” and the “Watts Riots”. This incident led thousands of residents of the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles to riot out of anger over problems involving employment discrimination and poverty.

After the riots, Ted organized youths to clean up blighted vacant lots, plant grass and flowers, and turn them into pocket parks, according to WLCAC website.

The Ted Watkins Board rose to prominence as a community self-help agency helping thousands of residents gain employment and basic services. He participated in the construction of a financial institution and hospital in Watts, as well as in the development of programs for housing and low-income youth.

“My great-grandfather is a big part of our family and one of my role models for my town of Watts and for many people,” JuJu said.

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However, she also understands the importance of developing the sport as a whole to ensure it can provide as much as possible for those players.

The WNBA has never been profitable in any season in its history.

Clark’s arrival in 2024 appears to be the league’s best chance to change that for the first time. Clark’s arrival and the new wave of followers and media attention she brought to the game also sparked controversy and criticism from WNBA veterans and former players.

Watkins, now seeing the spoils of all the attention Clark brought to the college game, is ready to embrace it all.

“I don’t think anybody has changed the trajectory of the sport that much,” Watkins said of Clark.

While Watkins wants to break Clark’s scoring record, she hopes many of the new fans of women’s basketball, even those who give her “headaches” and “sometimes don’t know what they’re talking about,” will come to cheer her on. But Watkins will also embrace these fans and the attention if they “hate” it.

“I love the fans and I love the haters.”

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