JuJu Watkins has scored more points than Caitlin Clark through two college seasons, but that doesn’t really put her ahead of the NCAA scoring record pace.
Up Next – Caitlin Clark and JuJu Watkins Comparisons Show Growth of Game!
First of all, let’s put some respect on Kelsey Mitchell’s name. Because while it’s true that JuJu Watkins passed Caitlin Clark for most points scored in a player’s first two college seasons, that specific scoring record is actually held by Clark’s current Indiana Fever teammate from her time at Ohio State.
With that said, Watkins will likely pass Mitchell as well if USC isn’t upset early in the NCAA Tournament.
But despite having passed Clark’s early marks, is Watkins really on pace to take down the former Iowa star’s record total? Here’s the truth about where JuJu stands in what’s sure to be a difficult chase for all-time NCAA D-I points scored.
Watkins has played 65 games thus far in her college career. Clark played 62 in her first two seasons. Clark averaged 26.8 points over her freshman and sophomore campaigns, while Watkins is currently sitting at 25.9. However, JuJu’s points per game have dropped from her freshman year, from 27.1 to 24.6. What’s going to make her record chase particularly tough is the jump Clark took in her final two seasons with the Hawkeyes.
Clark scored 27.8 points per game as a junior and then leaped to 31.6 as a senior. That gave her an average of 28.4 points over her career at Iowa; and she played as many games as possible in her final two seasons since Iowa won the Big 10 Tournament in both of those years and advanced to the NCAA championship in back-to-back seasons.
Clark played 77 games over that span which allowed her to bring her overall point total to the current record of 3,951. Watkins has amassed 1,684 points to date. That puts her 2,267 points behind the all-time mark.
At her overall college scoring clip, Watkins would need to play an unattainable 88 more games to get there. Thus, it will require a big uptick in production for her to take the points crown. If Watkins were to play close to the most amount of games possible during the duration of her time with the Trojans, she would need to score in the range of 28 points per game to topple the record.
In other words, she would have to boost her average from this season by several points per contest going forward. And obviously, the fewer games played, the more that rate would have to increase.
It would be silly to write off Watkins taking another leap with more experience at USC. So the best way to sum up her chase of Clark’s scoring record is doable — but very difficult.
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