JuJu Watkins Scores 51, Breaks Records, and Dazzles As USC Outlasts Stanford

Cynthia Cooper.

Tina Thompson.

Lisa Leslie.

Cheryl Miller.

4 Hall of Famers, 4 of the all time greats in the sport and women of Troy, and yet freshman sensation JuJu Watkins stands alone as the highest scoring individual (single game) in USC history, dropping 51 points in SC's win over Stanford.

In what has felt like a never-ending line of consistently strung together high level performances by JuJu, this one took the cake as she set the pace for Division 1 this season, besting the previous high on the year of 47 points set by Buffalo's Chellia Watson.

Calling this performance special doesn't do it justice. JuJu Watkins scored 51 points against a top 5 opponent on their home court, and that goes without mentioning that the Cardinal are top ten in the country in defense per CBB Analytics.

What's so crazy in watching her do this is that often when you think of the large scoring droves you've seen, it's not replicable. It's a flamethrower in a vacuum.

JuJu was just out there doing JuJu.

She feels and reads the game at an astounding level for a freshman, but also for anyone. Watching her grow into her own in how she sees the flow of the game, times things, knows when to hit what buttons... it's the kind of thing you don't even anticipate some pros who will play lengthy careers to do.

She comes off away screens, she attacks out of hand-offs, she throttles in isolation, early offense is her tip of the spear, she gets to the rim on a whim, she's always moving and finding lanes to attack. Her shot and the height she gets on it make it near unguardable, a hallmark of her game, but the suddenness with which she can get to it is so impressive. She is quite literally a threat from anywhere and everywhere all the time.

How do you guard that?

Stanford did not have an answer tonight, and I do not blame them. 

As Trojan Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb relayed during her halftime interview, JuJu made every right read and every right play. That is the key.

Again, this wasn't a heater, this was JuJu thinking the game, dictating the pace, seeing what was happening before it did and adjusting while it did. Those are the things you can't teach. She has the size, the athleticism, the fluidity... but it is her mind and approach that makes her great and arguably the National Player of the Year. 

It's not hyperbole to call that one of the greatest individual performances I have ever watched at any level of the sport, a truly breathtaking feat. One of those games where you just sit down and start laughing.

When you zoom out with the additional perspective that USC has been enduring their roughest stretch of the season, dropping 3 of their last 4 as Pac-12 play grinds on, that makes this game mean that much more. It's not that JuJu could score 51 as much as it was essential that she did tonight to push SC back over .500 in conference play.

Much has been made of Watkins' usage and efficiency of late. I can't point out enough that when you add the context of what she is capable of, what this team needs from her, and what she seems to be demanding of herself, we are not witnessing any sort of selfish play or poor construction, we're witnessing greatness.

I've long praised and spoken on JuJu's potential, but what she's doing in the present is special. She has already entered the elite pantheon of basketball at 18 and has the makings of one of the very best we've ever seen play the sport, something I don't say lightly. But, tonight is one of those night's that makes you recognize that sometimes, you just can't quantify what you're seeing in real time and you just have to appreciate that something wonderful is going down.

Incredible things are brewing in Los Angeles as Southern Cal has returned to the focal point of hoops. The Pac-12 is going out with a bang, and JuJu Watkins keeps finding ways to punctuate the final season of #AfterDark with her triumphs.