USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb noticed a stranger approaching. She thought maybe she had spilled something and he was going to tell her. Instead, he stopped by their table and paused.
“Hey, Coach,” he said. “I thought it was you. I have to ask…”
She waited.
“Is JuJu really 6ft 2in? he asked.
Gottlieb burst out laughing. She replied — yes, JuJu Watkins is 6 feet 2 inches tall — then joked that it depends on how much of Watkins’ signature bun is counted. A big guard in the Big Ten, even bigger, was an enticing prospect for this Los Angeles sports fan. Even in the summer, he was looking forward to the season, which will see USC — a team that appeared on the national networks just three times last season before its playoff run to the Elite Eight — on ESPN, FOX, FS1 and NBC nine times before the season. Big Ten Tournament.
He thanked Gottlieb, wished him luck and continued on his way.
The exchange seemed oddly familiar to Gottlieb, but not as head coach of USC, a program she took over in 2021 while living in the basement of the Pac-12. Instead, it reminded her of experiences during two seasons as a Cleveland Cavaliers assistant, when insatiable NBA fans wanted to break down every game and every potential moment.
“For those of us who have really followed this game for a long time, we knew there were great players before, we knew great stories before, but now you have to see the rest of the world catch on and pay attention. “It’s really cool,” Gottlieb said. “Then you add to that the kind of position I’ve been put in, where we’re one of the programs that has one of those star players that gets a lot of credit. Attention. This is a great responsibility.
“I haven’t lost any of that, the fact that we’re kind of at the peak of this moment.”
More than 2,500 miles across the country, UConn coach Geno Auriemma can relate. For nearly four decades, some of the game’s biggest stars have passed through the Huskies gym. Still, the fanfare didn’t match what he’d seen on the men’s side.
Until now.
In early October, UConn announced that it had sold out its season ticket packages for the first time since the 2004-05 season, after Diana Taurasi won a national championship as a senior.
This didn’t happen during the Maya Moore or Breanna Stewart years, nor after 111 consecutive victories or four straight national titles. Not until now – Paige Bueckers’ final season of Storrs.
“There are people who never had an opinion and now have an opinion or want to know things they never wanted to know, but now they know names and events that in the past They wouldn’t have thought twice,” Auriemma said. “The die-hard fans, they can’t wait for the season to start. But casual fans tuned in and took a sip, and now they’re intrigued.
This wave of attention to women’s basketball is undeniable. Every number confirms this. Last season’s NCAA Tournament set viewership records, including a title game that drew 18.9 million viewers (ahead of the men’s title game’s nearly 4 million, which most fans thought would never happen). Iowa star Caitlin Clark’s uncanny knack for big moments and ability to make 3 logos attracted millions, but those fans found other players, teams and games to enjoy. Even taking Iowa’s NCAA Tournament games out of the equation, last year’s ESPN audience grew 43% during March Madness.
Clark’s draw, along with Angel Reese’s at LSU, continued in the WNBA. Indiana Fever’s viewership and ratings skyrocketed; so was Reese’s Chicago Sky. Once again, these new WNBA fans stuck around for the other great talents.
Paige Bueckers’ Huskies beat JuJu Watkins’ Trojans in the Elite Eight, but both players recorded a 20-point double-double. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
Stars power sports and leagues. They attract casual observers and convert them to die-hards. After Clark and Reese leave for the WNBA, there’s no disappointment for the college basketball stars who help carry the sport’s weight, but the focus will be on two.
USC’s Watkins and UConn’s Bueckers are anchored by two coasts, two conferences and two national title contenders. They star in programs that are iconic in their own way and recognizable around the world. They are both elite – potentially generational – and have the ball in their hands more than anyone else.
Watkins is the reigning freshman trying to resurrect the Trojans, who were irrelevant during her lifetime. He’s the hometown kid who produced stars like Kevin Hart, Saweetie, LeBron James and John Wall in last season’s home games. The smoothness of her game and effortless quality make it look like she’s never rushed the floor, come up from 3, or attack the basket (or hit a shot that doesn’t). anywhere in between).
Kevin Hart was there to see JuJu Watkins and the USC women’s basketball team ✌️#ncaaw #fight pic.twitter.com/31PLjQDknN
– The WNBA got the game (@wnbagotgame) December 20, 2023
Bueckers, who won National Player of the Year as a freshman four years ago, is in her final season at UConn. Even with her vaunted legacy, few high school players were more lauded than her upon arriving at Storrs. And yet, in his fifth year, a national championship — of which UConn won 11 — eluded Bueckers. She’s a slender guard with enough savvy in her own right that even when she played all four last season, she was still named an All-American. A player so confident that she trademarked her nickname “Paige Buckets” before her sophomore season.
The play, storylines and stardom of Watkins and Bueckers, along with the December meeting between USC and UConn (a rematch of last season’s Elite Eight) are the reasons why people, including new fans, will tune in to women’s hoops this season.
But unlike other players with the same qualities, they are playing in an era of unprecedented transformation.
Due to an investigation that found serious disparities between men’s and women’s NCAA basketball, the NCAA was forced to invest more in the women’s NCAA tournament. Due to the growing attention, ESPN – the media partner of the NCAA women’s tournament – invested last year and paid a lot of money for the media rights to broadcast the event. Thanks to NIL, players like Bueckers and Watkins are recognizable outside of women’s basketball circles, partnering with major companies like Nike and Gatorade. Watkins was spotted at the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival, threw out the first pitch at a Los Angeles Dodgers game in June and won the ESPY for Best Breakthrough Athlete. Bueckers attended the US Open, where Frances Tiafoe and Coco Gauff shouted it out, sat front row at New York Fashion Week, and was featured on the JumboTron at a Los Rams game Angeles.
“There are no boundaries for us, and because of that you see talent, you see coaching, you see fan support, you see the audience – you see all those things,” said the South Carolina coach. » Said Dawn Staley. “This is probably the biggest move our game has made in its history, and it couldn’t come at a more perfect time. …There are so many people listening; we met then.
To continue to meet this moment, women’s basketball needs the next wave of stars. He needs teams with compelling storylines (Staley’s Gamecocks are a perfect example as defending champions returning after an undefeated season), but he also needs individuals like Watkins and Bueckers, whose stories and the travel this season will be as compelling as their play on the floor.
“It’s great that we have them because it would be a shame to continue last year’s star power and not be able to add to it this season,” Auriemma said. “We have to highlight these guys and these teams, and we have to play well. We need to give all these new people who are going to watch something that they’re excited about so they’ll want to come back.
If Bueckers and Watkins do what their coaches think, then new fans will certainly have reason to continue tuning in and finding their next favorite players once Bueckers and Watkins move on to the pros.
Auriemma and Gottlieb, who have been around the sport for decades, know that this moment is not only different; This is long overdue. What comes next (or, really, who comes next) will be what moves the sport forward.
(Illustration: Meech Robinson / Athletics; Best photos of Paige Bueckers and JuJu Watkins: G Fiume / Getty Images, Brian Rothmuller/Sportswire Icon via Getty Images)