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Coming off a dominant freshman season at USC, JuJu Watkins has been pegged as a potential future top pick in the WNBA. Following some recent news regarding the league's growth, some fans are concerned about where she might end up.
Since the fall of 2023, the WNBA has announced expansion teams in Golden State and Toronto. This week, reports emerged that Portland is also being added to this list. The league announced Wednesday that this team is also set to launch in 2026.
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By the time JuJu Watkins is ready to enter the pro ranks, all of these franchises will be up and running. Following news of Portland getting a team, fans stated they don't want her winding up in that city.
While some fans aren't pleased with the idea of Watkins going to Portland, others are excited for her to possibly be the face of a new franchise.
"JuJu Watkins in a Portland jersey would be so 🔥!" a fan said.
"JUJU WATKINS YOU ARE A PORTLAND FIRE," one fan said.
"Juju Watkins, you ARE a PortlandHer," another fan said.
Watkins took women's college basketball by storm last season en route to being named an All-American and PAC-12 Rookie of the Year. In 34 games for USC, she averaged 27.1 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists.
JuJu Watkins speaks on career-high outing vs Stanford
Last season, JuJu Watkins had multiple impressive offensive masterclasses. That said, there is one performance that stands out above the rest.
Back in February, USC found themselves matched up against one of their rivals, Stanford. Things would end up being close down the stretch, but they'd managed to walk out with a 67-58 win. The biggest storyline from this game is the stellar play of Watkins.
The rookie guard got it going early and never looked back. By the time the final buzzer sounded, she almost had as many points as the entire opposing team. Watkins finished the game with a stat line of 51 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and four steals.
In an appearance on the "Best of Both Worlds" podcast with Flau'jae Johnson earlier this month, Watkins was asked about her offensive eruption against Stanford. She admitted she wasn't going for a big number, but her teammates just kept feeding her the ball.
"Well see the thing was it was a close game," Watkins said. "So it was like I had to ya know. My teammates was like here, come on, cause I was hot." [16:50]
Aside from this outing, Watkins only scored 40+ points on one other occasion last season. That came in a win over Colorado, where she posted 42 points. In total, Watkins scored 920 points on the season. This set a new freshman scoring record in women's college basketball.
