USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb noticed a stranger approaching. She thought maybe she had spilled something and he was going to give her a heads-up. Instead, he stopped near their table and paused.
“Hey, Coach,” he said. “I thought it was you. I’ve gotta ask …”
She waited.
“Is JuJu really 6 foot 2?” he asked.
Gottlieb laughed. She answered — yes, JuJu Watkins is listed at 6 feet 2 — then joked that it depends on how much of Watkins’ iconic bun is counted. A big guard in the even bigger Big Ten was an enticing prospect for this L.A. sports fan. Even in the summer, he was eagerly anticipating the season, which will see USC — a team that appeared on national networks just three times last season before its postseason run to the Elite Eight — on ESPN, FOX, FS1 and NBC nine times before the Big Ten tournament.
He thanked Gottlieb, wished her luck and went on his way.
The exchange felt oddly familiar to Gottlieb, just not as the head coach of USC, a program she took over in 2021 when it was a basement dweller in 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 potential matchup and moment.
“For those of us who have really followed this game for a long time, we’ve known there have been great players before, we’ve known the great stories before, but now to see the rest of the world catch on and pay attention is really cool,” Gottlieb said. “Then you add to it this kind of position I’ve been thrust into, where we’re one of the programs that has one of these star players who is getting a ton of this attention. It’s a great responsibility. It’s a great opportunity.
“None of it is lost on me, that we’re sort of in the apex of this moment.”
More than 2,500 miles across the country, UConn coach Geno Auriemma can relate. For nearly four decades, some of the greatest stars to play the game have come through the Huskies’ gym. Yet the fanfare didn’t match what he saw on the men’s side.
Until now.
In early October, UConn announced 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.
That didn’t happen during the Maya Moore or Breanna Stewart years, or after 111 straight wins or four straight national titles. Not until now — Paige Bueckers’ final season in Storrs.
“There are people who have never had an opinion that have an opinion now or they want to know things that they never wanted to know, but now they’re familiar with names and events that in the past they wouldn’t think twice of,” Auriemma said. “The die-hard fans, they can’t wait for the season to start. But the casual fan has tuned in and got a sip of it, and now they’re intrigued.”
That groundswell of attention for women’s basketball is undeniable. Every number backs it up. Last season’s NCAA Tournament set viewership records, including a title game that drew 18.9 million viewers (besting the men’s title game by nearly 4 million, something most fans assumed could never happen). Iowa star Caitlin Clark’s uncanny knack for the big moment and ability to nail logo 3s drew in 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 viewership rose 43 percent during March Madness.
Clark’s draw, as well as Angel Reese’s at LSU, continued into the WNBA. Indiana Fever attendance and viewership numbers soared; the same was true for Reese’s Chicago Sky. Again, these new WNBA fans stayed for the other massive talents.
Paige Bueckers’ Huskies bested JuJu Watkins’ Trojans in the Elite Eight, but both players registered 20-point double-doubles. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
Stars propel sports and leagues. They lure casual observers and convert them to die-hards. After Clark and Reese departed for the WNBA, there’s no letdown for college basketball stars helping carry the sport’s weight, but attention will be focused on two.
Anchoring two coasts, two conferences and two national title contenders are USC’s Watkins and UConn’s Bueckers. They’re playing at programs that are iconic in their own ways and recognizable worldwide. They’re both elite — potentially generational — and have the ball in their hands more than almost anyone else.
Watkins is the reigning Freshman of the Year attempting to resurrect the Trojans, who haven’t been relevant in her lifetime. She’s the hometown kid who turned out stars like Kevin Hart, Saweetie, LeBron James and John Wall at last season’s home games. The smoothness to her game and effortless quality make it seem like she has never rushed on the floor, whether she’s pulling up from 3 or attacking the basket (or hitting a shot anywhere in between).
Kevin Hart was in attendance to see JuJu Watkins and the USC Women’s Basketball team ✌️#ncaaw #fighton pic.twitter.com/31PLjQDknN
— WNBA Got 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 its vaunted legacy, few high school players were more heralded coming into Storrs than she was. And yet, in her fifth year, a national championship — of which UConn has won 11 — has eluded Bueckers. She’s a rangy guard with enough savvy inside that even when she played the 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.
Watkins’ and Bueckers’ play, storylines and celebrity, as well as USC and UConn’s December meeting (a rematch of last season’s Elite Eight) are reasons people, including new fans, will tune in for women’s hoops this season.
But unlike players before them with those same attributes, they’re competing at a time of unprecedented transformation.
Because of an investigation that exposed grievous disparities in NCAA men’s and women’s basketball, the NCAA was forced to invest more in the women’s NCAA Tournament. Because of growing attention, ESPN — the women’s NCAA Tournament media partner — anted up last year and paid big money for the media rights to broadcast the event. Because of NIL, players such as 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 June Los Angeles Dodgers game and won the ESPY for Best Breakthrough Athlete. Bueckers attended the U.S. Open, where Frances Tiafoe and Coco Gauff shouted her out, sat front row at New York Fashion Week and was featured on the JumboTron at a Los Angeles Rams game.
“There’s no boundaries on us, and because of that, you’re seeing talent, you’re seeing coaching, you’re seeing fan support, you’re seeing viewership — you’re seeing all of those things,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “This is probably the biggest movement in our game in its history, and it couldn’t happen at a more perfect time. … There are so many people tuned in; we met the moment.”
To continue meeting that moment, women’s basketball needs the next wave of stars. It needs teams with compelling storylines (Staley’s Gamecocks are a perfect example as reigning champs coming back to repeat after an undefeated season), but it also needs individuals like Watkins and Bueckers, whose stories and journeys 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 follow up the star power of last year and then not be able to add to it this season,” Auriemma said. “We need to showcase these guys and these teams, and we need to play well. We need to give all these new people that are going to be watching something to be excited about so they want to come back.”
If Bueckers and Watkins do what their coaches believe, then new fans will certainly have reasons to keep tuning in and finding their next favorite players once Bueckers and Watkins move on to the pros.
Auriemma and Gottlieb, who have been around this game for decades, know this moment isn’t just different; it’s long overdue. What comes next (or, really, who comes next) will be what pushes the sport forward.
(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; Top photos of Paige Bueckers and JuJu Watkins: G Fiume / Getty Images, Brian Rothmuller / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)