JuJu Watkins named AP women's college basketball Player of the Year

On Thursday, the Associated Press named USC‘s JuJu Watkins its women’s college basketball Player of the Year. Watkins received 29 votes from the 31-member national media panel that votes on the AP Top 25 each week.

Watkins is just the fourth player ever to win the award in her sophomore season, joining Oklahoma‘s Courtney Paris (2007) and UConn stars Maya Moore (2009) and Breanna Stewart (2014). Moreover, she’s the first USC player to win the coveted award.

Watkins averaged 23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game this season while shooting career-highs of 42.6% from the field and 32.5% from beyond the arc. Watkins’ individual accomplishments translated into team success.

USC finished the season with a 31-4 record and won the Big Ten regular-season title for the first time in program history. Unfortunately, Watkins’ season was cut short after she suffered a torn ACL in USC’s 96-59 win over Mississippi State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Trojans were able to win their Sweet Sixteen showdown without Watkins but ultimately fell to UConn in the Elite Eight. Now, Watkins will have a challenging offseason ahead of her as she works to return to the court. Alas, USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb is confident Watkins will make a triumphant comeback.

“I’ll still be so just, like, crushed for JuJu and the game because that just wasn’t supposed to happen like that,” she said. “But I also think, I have no doubt that her comebacks going to be legendary and I have no doubt that the strength of the program is not in doubt and I think we proved that.”

Watkins is not only one of the biggest stars in the sport on the court but off it, as well. She boasts a $739k On3 NIL valuation, the sixth-highest of all women’s college basketball players.

Watkins has deals with numerous household brands, including Nike, State Farm and Gatorade. In fact, after Watkins suffered her season-ending injury, Nike honored her by releasing a new ad titled, “Setbacks only set the stage.”

Fans around the country are hopeful Watkins’ comeback comes sooner rather than later. Nonetheless, ESPN’s Rebecca Lobo wouldn’t count on it. After Watkins’ injury, Lobo had an in-depth discussion about the timeline of Watkins’ return.

“What we’ve seen, especially recently with high-level athletes in terms of women’s college basketball is it’s about a 12-month recovery process for them to get back on the court,” Lobo said on NBA Today. “… One thing that she can look to is the success of some of her contemporaries.

“We saw Paige Bueckers, a couple years go, tear an ACL, and then returned last year and led UConn to a Final Four. Olivia Miles from Notre Dame tore her ACL, sat out last year and this year, she’s having a career year in terms of her efficiency. So we have seen players come back from this, perform at a really high level.”