No. 7 USC (10-1) at No. 4 UConn (9-1), Saturday, 5 p.m. PT, XL Center, Hartford, Conn, FOX (Ch. 11)

Luca Evans (OC Register)  —  LOS ANGELES — The day after JuJu Watkins’ first college basketball season ended, her tears long dried but the pain still burning, longtime trainer Phil Handy texted the USC sensation to keep her head held high.

The Trojans’ cardinal-carpet NCAA Tournament run had ended at the start of April at the hands of a Connecticut program that represented everything Watkins and these Trojans wanted to be. She was hounded off the ball and there was only so much the freshman could do, taking over a third of her program’s shots from the floor in a 29-point losing effort. And Watkins broke down at the postgame podium, struggling to choke out words to properly describe what the year had meant to her.

Remember this feeling, Handy remembered writing the next day, part of a longer message. Remember what it feels like, and let it fuel you to come back better.

“She just shared that, ‘Man, it hurt,’” Handy recalled, speaking with the Southern California News Group on Thursday. “She’s like, that’s one of the worst feelings she’s ever had after losing a game.”

There was one certainty after that loss that the entirety of USC’s locker room knew: Watkins would come back motivated, and better, in 2024-25. The secret of how, exactly, is a concept at the core of Watkins’ ability to hit her own ceiling, a concept she has been working through with Handy since they first began working together entering her high school years.

“There are times, yes, when great players, you’ve got to take the game over,” Handy said. “And then there are times when great players have to continue to rely on their teammates.”

“And she’s, she’s figuring that out, man.”

On Saturday, against the program that left her brokenhearted eight months ago, Watkins has as good a chance as any to showcase her development on a massive stage. No. 7 USC’s rematch with No. 4 UConn (9-1) on Saturday night is the very definition of prime time, with Watkins going head-to-head again with Huskies senior star Paige Bueckers. It is FOX’s only women’s basketball game of the season that will have an NFL game as a lead-in, as FOX Vice President of Collegiate Sports Derek Crocker told the Southern California News Group.

But USC (10-1) has come reloaded, with Stanford transfer Kiki Iriafen feasting down low and Oregon State transfer guard Talia Von Oelhoffen finding her role on the perimeter. And a year after a masterfully coached UConn program knocked USC out of the Elite Eight by keying defensive attention on Watkins, Watkins’ ability to read the floor and trust teammates will be paramount in any attempt at retribution.

“We know how good JuJu is, but also, other people kind of finding their rhythm and playing off of her … that’s something I think we’ve continued to grow with,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb told reporters on Thursday. “But that’s how teams become great.”

Two weeks after that April loss to UConn, Watkins sat with her family for lunch with Handy, the former Lakers assistant coach. They sketched out a plan for her offseason direction. Paramount, as Handy said, was continuing to drill her understanding of how to attack defenses; her “basketball IQ catching up to her skill level,” he put it.

“She’s always been super open to it, very aggressive with it,” Handy said, “and just understands that that’s where her game is going to have to really take the most growth.”

She has shown more poise as a sophomore. Her efficiency is up, shooting 45% from the floor after 40% her freshman year. Her assists are up, from 3.3 per game to 3.7. Her turnovers are down, from 4.1 to 3.2. But Watkins has still been prone to forcing the issue, as any transcendent scorer sometimes is, Notre Dame limiting her to 24 points on 10-of-25 shooting in a sobering early-season loss.

“You can definitely see in moments, when we turn over, things start to go wrong, she can get in a mode of – just go score,” Von Oelhoffen said in a wide-ranging conversation with the Southern California News Group a couple of weeks ago. “Because she, so, that’s how she impacts the game. And she’s great at it. But I think as she matures, and we start to trust each other more, just knowing that she does have help and we’re there.”

Watkins’ grasp of that Saturday will be fascinating to watch, particularly against the hyper-efficient Bueckers. The UConn senior guard’s precision has been eye-popping: She’s averaging 20.6 points per game, shooting 58% from the floor and 44% from 3-point range. She’s had a star running mate in freshman forward Sarah Strong, a 6-foot-2 inside-out threat who has averaged 17.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists while shooting 56%.

USC will need all hands on deck to counter. Iriafen’s matchup with Strong in the frontcourt will be fascinating. With freshman Kennedy Smith out after having an unspecified surgery a month ago, Von Oelhoffen will likely be tasked with checking Bueckers for long stretches. And Watkins will have to capably balance her own looks with her capacity to create for others.

“Just making sure that she knows that, while it may seem like the weight of the world is on her shoulders – it’s not,” Von Oelhoffen said in early December. “We’re there for her.”

ocregister.com

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