Judea Skies "JuJu" Watkins (born July 15, 2005) is an American college basketball player for the USC Trojans of the Big Ten Conference.
She was ranked the number one recruit in her class by ESPN and earned national high school player of the year honors as a senior at Sierra Canyon.
In her first season at USC, Watkins was named a unanimous first-team All-American and won the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award.
[1] Watkins trained with Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy and modeled her game after Arike Ogunbowale.
[8][9] As a senior, Watkins averaged 27.3 points, 13.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game, leading Sierra Canyon to the CIF Southern Section Open Division title, a 31–1 record and the regional final.
She set the single-game scoring record for the Galen Center, her team's home arena, and had her 11th 30-point game, eclipsing Cheryl Miller for the most in a season by a USC player.
[24] At the end of the regular season, she was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and All-Pac-12, while earning All-Defensive Team honors from the league's media.
During the game, Watkins broke the Division I freshman scoring record, held by Tina Hutchinson of San Diego State since 1984.
[35] At the 2022 FIBA Under-17 World Cup in Hungary, Watkins led her team to the gold medal and was named MVP after averaging 13.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.3 steals per game.
[1] In 2022 as a high school junior, Watkins signed with Klutch Sports Group, becoming the first female athlete to be represented by the agency.
[38] In 2024, Watkins signed a multi-year contract extension with Nike, described by ESPN as one of the largest shoe deals in women's basketball.
[40] Watkins has also signed NIL deals with AT&T, Celsius, Dove, NerdWallet, Ritz and Wells Fargo among other companies.