Caitlin Clark was the biggest star in college basketball for the last two seasons, but now that she's moved on to the WNBA, there's room for someone else to step into the spotlight. Clark, like so many others, expects it to be USC guard JuJu Watkins.
In fact, Clark told Watkins as much herself at the Wooden Awards in Los Angeles last month. Both were finalists for the Wooden Award -- given to the best player in college basketball -- which Clark won for the second year in a row.
"She was like, 'I had this attention for a year and a half, two years,'" USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb told The Orange County Register, remembering Clark's words to Watkins. "She said to JuJu, 'You're going to have it for the next three.'"
Clark went even further last week when she met Gottlieb after the Indiana Fever's practice at USC's Galen Center ahead of their matchup with the Los Angeles Sparks -- a game Clark sealed with two ridiculous 3-pointers in the final minute. She gave the USC coach her phone number and offered to help her and Watkins navigate the coming pressure.
"I'm certainly going to utilize that as a resource, if she's this willing," Gottlieb said. "I think that's just a neat thing. And I do think it's really cool on her part to be willing to pay it forward, so to speak, and help someone else."
That is a terrific gesture from Clark, who knows better than anyone what Watkins is about to go through. There will be media responsibilities, constant attention from fans, both online and in real life, and expectations to produce every time she steps on the court.
Clark admitted earlier this year it gets overwhelming at times.
"The hardest part about being Caitlin Clark I would say is having to feel like you're always 'on,'" Clark said. "You just have bad days, and those days where you don't want to talk to anyone, but somebody comes up to you and this is their 10-second interaction with you, so you better smile and be kind. But at the same time, it's just like, you want to be normal sometimes."
The easiest part for Watkins to handle will be on the court, where she put together a historic freshman season. Her 920 points set an NCAA freshman scoring record and put her 121 points ahead of Clark's pace for the all-time Division I scoring record of 3,951 points.
Watkins was named a First Team AP All-American, won the Ann Meyers Drysdale award as the nation's best shooting guard and led USC to the Elite Eight in her first season. The Trojans could be even better next season with the arrival of star transfer Kiki Iriafen from Stanford, giving Watkins a chance to do one thing Clark never did in college: win a title.
