By now, pretty much everyone knows JuJu Watkins can single-handedly blow up a game.
In USC’s first meeting with UCLA, Watkins scored or assisted on all but eight of the Trojans’ 24 points in the fourth quarter. And of those eight points she didn’t have a hand in, four were free throws. Watkins also had five of her eight — eight! — blocks in the fourth quarter, as well as a steal.
What had been a five-point UCLA lead became a decisive, 11-point USC win over the then-No. 1 and previously unbeaten Bruins.
‘JuJu was otherworldly,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said after that game. ‘When you see it happen, it’s one of those magical times.”
For USC, sure. For its opponents, Watkins is a whole lot of trouble.
She’s not the only one, however. Here are five other players besides Watkins who can make life unbearable for their opponents in the upcoming NCAA tournament:
Mikayla Blakes, Vanderbilt
If you like being ahead of the curve, keep your eyes on Mikayla Blakes.
Blakes set the NCAA’s freshman single-game scoring record with 55 points against Auburn last month, two weeks after she’d dropped 53 on Florida. At 23.2 points per game, Blakes is seventh in the nation in scoring.
Oh, she’s also a big reason Vanderbilt was able to snap an eight-game losing streak to Tennessee in January, grabbing a rebound and scoring the last-second put-back in the 71-70 win. Blakes tormented Tennessee again in the SEC tournament, scoring a game-high 24 as the Commodores beat the Vols twice in a season for the first time.
Paige Bueckers, UConn
Bueckers is probably the most complete player in college basketball right now. Score, set her teammates up, defend — she can read the game as well as anyone and will play whatever role UConn needs her to to win the game.
She’s also going to take care of the ball, leading the country with a 3.90 assist-to-turnover ratio. In other words, Bueckers is never going to beat herself, so opponents are going to have to find a way to beat her.
Ta’Niya Latson, Florida State
That Latson is going to get her points is a given. She leads the nation in scoring, at 24.9 points a game, and her nine points against Duke in the regular-season finale was only the second time in 47 games that she was held below double figures.
(To be fair, the other came in a non-conference game in which she only played 11 minutes because of an injury. And Latson still scored eight points.)
What makes Latson so dangerous, though, is that she’s a problem wherever she is on the court. If she doesn’t have a shot, she’ll find a teammate who does, doling out an average of 4.7 assists a game. She’s also averaging 2.2 steals and has 13 blocks this season.
Harmoni Turner, Harvard
My word is the finalist for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year award having herself a March! Turner is averaging just over 31 points a game so far this month. That includes a 44-point effort against Princeton on Friday night that broke Turner’s own Harvard record for a single game and lifted the Crimson to the Ivy Madness title game.
Turner was dealing again in the championship game, scoring a game-high 24 and taking a big offensive foul down the stretch in Harvard’s 74-71 win against Columbia. The win assured the Crimson of their first NCAA tournament berth since 2007.
Hailey Van Lith, TCU
Van Lith got no shortage of grief last year for not having the same success at LSU that she’d had at Louisville. That wasn’t really fair, given Van Lith was being asked to play a different position and in a system not built for her.
But she’s flourished at TCU, reminding people of why she was once considered one of the best players in college basketball. She’s averaging 17.9 points per game and her 46% shooting percentage is the best of her career. Her average of 5.3 assists is 1.5 per game better than her previous career best. That’s just bonkers.
