Introduction by Troy MacNeill

JuJu Watkins has been turning heads in basketball gyms since she was young. From AAU tournaments, to high school gyms, and now college arenas, JuJu has been getting buckets for a long time. As one of the best scorers in college basketball today, the accolades are beginning to pile up.
 
JuJu Watkins was named a Semi-Finalist for this year’s AAU Sullivan Award. The AAU Sullivan Award is presented to the collegiate, Olympic, or similar level athlete who has demonstrated the most athletic success – as well as leadership, character, and sportsmanship – while competing in their sport. As a freshman, Watkins was among elite company as a Semi-Finalist.
 
To go along with the AAU Sullivan nod, Watkins has been named a Finalist for the 2024 Dawn Staley Award. The Dawn Staley Award is given to the most outstanding collegiate guard in the country each year. JuJu joins three more AAU Alumni as finalists for the award: Hannah Hidalgo, Paige Bueckers, and the 93^rd AAU Sullivan Award Winner, Caitlin Clark.


Original Article as posted by USC Trojans News
 
Watkins has been instrumental in USC's outstanding season to date, leading the No. 5 Trojans in scoring in 26 of the 30 games in which she's played while adding to her USC record (male or female) with 13 games with 30 or more points scored — a mark that beats out Iowa's Caitlin Clark previous national record of 12 for the most such games for a freshman over the last 25 seasons. The No. 2 scorer in the nation with her 27.0 points per game, Watkins set another USC record with a 51-point outing in a USC road upset of Stanford, and that mark still stands as the most points scored by any player in the nation this season. Additionally, Watkins' 42 points vs. Colorado on Feb. 23 is the most points ever scored by a USC basketball player (male or female) at Galen Center. Watkins currently ranks No. 4 all-time in single-season scoring by a true freshman in the nation with 810 points to date.
 
But Watkins provides more than just scoring for these No. 3-ranked Trojans. She's the team's second leading rebounder with 7.2 per game, and she's averaging 2.4 steals and 1.5 blocks per game. In fact, she is now one of just five Pac-12 players ever to tally at least 750 points, 150 rebounds and 50 steals in a season. And she is the first player to sweep the Pac-12 weekly awards (Player and Freshman) more than once in a season with her three sweeps this season.
 
Most recently, Watkins was named to the Pac-12 All-Tournament Team for her work helping the Trojans win the 2024 Pac-12 Tournament Championship. That run including wins over two more top-10 opponents — No. 7 UCLA and No. 2 Stanford — to give USC its most wins over top-10 opponents since 1985-86. Also this season, the Trojans have captured the most wins (26) in a season since 1993-94, and USC has its highest AP national ranking since 1986.
 
The Dawn Staley Award winner will be announced the weekend of the Final Four. A virtual award ceremony will be held Thursday  April, 11 at 6 p.m. The award is given annually to a player who exemplifies the skills that Dawn possessed throughout her career — ball handling, scoring, her ability to distribute the basketball and her will to win.
 
Watkins has already been named the PAC-12 Freshman of the Year, The Athletic Freshman of the Year, and an Ann Meyers Drysdale Award Finalist, among many more 2023-24 honors.