JuJu Watkins is the biggest name brand individual player in women’s college basketball, hands-down. The USC Trojans guard is the consensus projection to go first overall in the next WNBA Draft.
Given how JuJu is coming back from an ACL injury that forced her to miss all of last season, she is far and away the leading contender to win not just all the national player of the year awards, but also the comeback player of the year plaudit.
At Big Ten Media Days, Watkins described her rehabilitation process as one long continuous mental hurdle, with different steps along the way.
Ju had to have patience with each milestone, getting back to walking, and then running, dribbling, and then shooting again.
“I might shed a tear,” Watkins said, in reference to a question about how she’ll react to her first made 3-pt shot in a game.
She expects to return a smarter player, making better decisions on the court, after having been a student of the game for a full season.
“There’s no doubt that that she was the best player in college basketball (before she got hurt),” her coach, Lindsey Gottlieb said at Media Day.
“You have to be aware when you have a player like that, a generational type star, that you have to put things in place for them to be successful, for them to be them, and it’s not the cookie cutter what you’ve always done.”
As Gottlieb pointed out, managing her return requires individualized support, patience, and trust in the recovery process.
“Juju Watkins is probably the most competitive human being being on a basketball court you could imagine,” Gottlieb added.
“And so it’s hard to be on the court with her and not also be competitive.”
With Watkins, you have a figure who looms just as large off the court, as she does on it.
Much like her minutes on the court have to be managed, as she comes back from a long-term injury, her public persona requires management as well.
At Media Days, she noted the potential mindfields of social media, stating how “it’s depressing to see where society is going” and “you can’t beat the interne…it gets wild.”
We then followed up by asking her what she does as a palette cleanser, to get away from all that toxic stuff in the online pseudo-world.
Juju Watkins noted that spending time with family and friends, being out in her community, takes her mind off of that cyberspace negativity, and instead bring the positive energy back in.
Watkins also mentioned how rewarding it is to be role model for little girls who look up to her.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, Ratings and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.