Ahead of their Elite Eight encounter tonight, the 29-5 USC Trojans are preparing for a starry matchup against Geno Auriemma’s 32-5 University of Connecticut Huskies.
Both clubs boast two of the four finalists for the Naismith Award, intended to honor the most elite player in all of women’s college hoops: Trojans freshman wing JuJu Watkins and senior Connecticut guard Paige Bueckers.
Bueckers has already won a Wooden Award and a Naismith Award, while being named the 2020-21 Associated Press Player of the Year, to boot. Both players have made this year’s Associated Press All-American First Team.
“It’s USC vs. UConn… not Paige vs. JuJu,” Auriemma insisted of the two teams’ star-studded matchup, according to Thuc Nhi Nguyen of The Los Angeles Times.
Auriemma’s Huskies have won 11 national titles since the last time the Trojans made the Elite Eight, 30 years ago, Nguyen writes.
“Her confidence, her fearlessness and the ability to just not care that she’s a freshman, and just perform the way that she does at the level that she does, it’s pretty amazing,” Bueckers raved of Watkins.
Bueckers missed half of the 2021-22 season and all of 2022-23 with major injuries, but is enjoying her best season ever this year. She’s averaging 21.9 points on .536/.415/.831 shooting splits through 37 games in 2023-24 so far, along with 5.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 2.2 steals, and 1.4 blocks a night.
“Obviously Paige is their JuJu basically, but as we know from our team, they have weapons all around,” USC graduate student guard Kayla Padilla said of the two players. “We just have to make sure we’re paying equal attention to everyone on the floor because we know they’re a full threat team.”
Watkins was the nation’s second-leading scorer this season, behind only Iowa Hawkeyes superstar point guard Caitlin Clark. Across her 33 healthy contests this year, she has logged averages of 27 points on .402/.319/.847 shooting splits, 7.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.6 blocks a night.
The game tips off at 6:15 p.m. PT/9:15 p.m. ET on ESPN. Per sportsbook aggregator The Action Network, Connecticut is considered a slight favorite to advance to the Final Four tonight (where it would face the winner of this ongoing Iowa Hawkeyes-LSU Tigers Elite Eight matchup), at -3.
Bueckers and Watkins may be the marquee names in the contest, but both programs are aware that scouting reports should not snooze on their talented teammates, either. Whatever happens, USC guard Taylor Bigby is aware that the game is going to be a major win for women’s basketball on the national stage.
“Seeing this matchup come to life tomorrow, I know it’s going to bring a lot more people, more views, just more attention to women’s basketball,” Bigby reflected. “Growing up, everybody wanted to go to UConn. So even us being in a position where people are probably looking at us like, ‘Oh, I want to go to SC one day,’ it’s crazy to think about.”
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