USC's JuJu Watkins Passes Caitlin Clark for Historic NCAA Scoring Milestone
When Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark broke Pete Maravich's NCAA record for most points scored in a career (3,667 points) almost exactly one year ago, it felt like that record would remain for an extremely long time.
And that certainly still could be the case. However, there's also a chance that a player who's already in women's college basketball could overtake Clark's record.
This is USC Trojans star JuJu Watkins. This elite scoring machine has become the favorite for the National Player of the Year this season after leading the red-hot Trojans to a Big Ten Conference regular season championship.
Watkins burst onto the scene during the 2023-24 campaign when she set the NCAA record for most points ever scored as a freshman. And her insane scoring has continued as a sophomore, to the point where she passed one of Clark's scoring milestones during her team's Big Ten Tournament championship game against the UCLA Bruins.
On Sunday, the 19-year-old Watkins passed Clark for the most points scored throughout a women's college basketball player’s first two NCAA seasons. Clark produced 1,662 points through her first two seasons with the Iowa Hawkeyes, which Watkins passed with a three-pointer during the Big Ten title game.
While this is an impressive milestone, it's important to note that Clark didn't hold the record for most points scored through the first two seasons. That belongs to her Fever teammate Kelsey Mitchell, who scored 1,762 points during her first two seasons with the Ohio State Buckeyes.
It's also important to note that Clark's scoring took off in a big way during her final two seasons, and that Watkins technically still isn't on pace to break her record.
But if JuJu's scoring output improves during the second half of her college career like Clark's did, the chase will be on.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.