JuJu Watkins shouldn’t be good. Often, close to the top of a bruising sport, the bun she wears—somewhat black beehive atop her head—seems to be barely off-center. As a guard for U.S.C., she scores loads, however she additionally shoots loads, and her capturing can go chilly. She will rush underneath stress, and she or he is sort of at all times underneath stress. Throughout the 4 video games earlier than a giant regular-season matchup in opposition to the group’s undefeated crosstown rival, U.C.L.A., in February, she missed twenty-one out of twenty-five three-point-shot makes an attempt. She shouldn’t be a cyborg inbuilt a basketball-analytics lab; nobody who watches her raves about how effectively she arbitrages effectivity. They’re too busy shrieking in disbelief.

Watkins is nineteen. As quickly as she arrived at U.S.C., final season, she established herself as probably the greatest gamers within the nation. She was fast, clean, and versatile—expert within the midrange and fearless from deep. She may block pictures like a middle and command the ground like some extent guard. What stood out most of all, although, was her charisma. And that title. JuJu!

She doesn’t shrink back from the massive stage or get skittish when confronted with failure. Following a poor capturing night time that led to a loss to unranked Washington, as a freshman, she erupted for fifty-one factors within the subsequent sport, in opposition to fourth-ranked Stanford—at Stanford. The group was so mesmerized by her efficiency that they hardly famous that this beautiful child was beating their very own group. “Each time I scored all I heard was ‘oooh,’ ” Watkins mentioned afterward. Towards U.C.L.A., after that run of poor three-point capturing, Watkins scored thirty-eight factors, going six for 9 from three—and likewise threw pinpoint passes out of double-teams, bated defenders into leaping early, and helped so vigorously on the defensive finish that she completed the sport with eight blocks, a couple of of them on crucial pictures within the second half by U.C.L.A.’s finest participant, Lauren Betts. Throughout the Large Ten championship sport, final Sunday, a rematch in opposition to U.C.L.A., Watkins struggled within the second half, and U.C.L.A. got here again to win. Given how she’s responded to unhealthy stretches prior to now, maybe the loss is definitely an excellent signal for her group’s prospects within the N.C.A.A. event. Watkins is a type of gamers who appears to have a watch on retribution: she hates to lose to you as soon as and refuses to lose to you twice.

The story of March Insanity final season was Caitlin Clark, which raised questions on a sequel: Who would draw consideration as soon as Clark was within the execs? However the reply was proper there within the event, within the Elite Eight matchup between U.S.C. and the College of Connecticut, which has its personal thrilling star in Paige Bueckers, doubtless the No. 1 choose within the upcoming W.N.B.A. draft. When the 2 groups performed once more, this previous December, U.S.C. received by two, with twenty-five factors from Watkins. At one level early within the third quarter, Watkins blocked a three-point try by Bueckers, then sped all the way down to the opposite finish, with Bueckers racing to remain in entrance of her. She juked into the lane with a between-the-legs crossover dribble, and spun simply as a cluster of gamers collapsed on her. By some means she shot out of the scrum and scored. The sport, which aired on Fox Sports activities, averaged 2.23 million viewers—the second-largest viewers ever for a ladies’s school basketball sport on the community, and round double the everyday viewers for a males’s school sport on Fox.

Watkins may have gone to a conventional powerhouse like UConn, or South Carolina, or Stanford. However she grew up in Watts, down the street from U.S.C. The Trojans are usually not with out historical past—Cheryl Miller, probably the greatest gamers ever, is an alum—but it surely had been years for the reason that ladies’s group had contended for a nationwide title. Watkins has mentioned she appreciated that. As her high-school coach put it to ESPN, if Watkins was pretty much as good as she thought she may very well be, then she ought to win anyplace, and so she would win at residence. She grew up enjoying on a “janky court docket, all concrete,” she recalled, at Ted Watkins Memorial Park, which is known as after her great-grandfather, a labor organizer. And she or he spent summers working as a receptionist on the Watts Labor Group Motion Committee, the group he based. Due to JuJu, a savvy new coach, and a number of transfers, the Trojans have been reworked in a single day. Now celebrities come to sit down courtside at the united statesC.’s Galen Heart to look at her, and followers crowd round her after video games, asking for photos and autographs. She is signed by Klutch Sports activities Group, which represents LeBron James; lately, Nike put her in a Tremendous Bowl industrial with LeBron. She has title, picture, and likeness offers with Gatorade, A.T. & T., and Diploma, and already has one of many largest shoe offers within the historical past of girls’s basketball.

Watkins isn’t eligible for the W.N.B.A. draft till 2027. She’s going to arrive in a league that’s prepared for her: a league with a big viewers, a presence on tv, a starvation for rivalries. Individuals are drawn to dominance, however they’re additionally drawn to competitors: Magic versus Larry, Jordan versus the world. It’s simple to think about what Watkins’s impression on skilled basketball can be. She is Black, she is SoCal, she is glamorous: her type mixes grit and suavity right into a excessive gloss.

In fact, I’m getting forward of issues, and there’s no cause to. Basketball is tough; Watkins wears a goal on her again. In sports activities, the specter of damage and different setbacks at all times looms. However I don’t watch Watkins and assume when it comes to possibilities and prospects. Her magnetism is generated by nowness, by the best way she appears to embody an ever-refreshing current. This event, this sport, this shot. “Oooooh,” goes the group. She’s a star. ♦