USC Women's Basketball: JuJu Watkins Reflects On Lessons Learned After First Loss Of Season

Can the now-10-1 Trojans bounce back?

On Saturday night, your USC Trojans women's basketball team notched its first defeat of the 2023-24 NCAA season, a 71-64 "road" loss at a sold-out Pauley Pavilion (just a few miles away from the Galen Center) to the 12-0 UCLA Bruins.

USC's best player, 6'2" freshman wing JuJu Watkins, reflected revealed her big takeaways from the loss after the game, per Thuc Nhi Nguen of The Los Angeles Times.

“We haven’t faced a team like this so far so just getting used to the physicality,” Watkins said. “I have to just slow it down and really try to pick it apart.”

“We’re new. A bunch of new pieces to the team,” Watkins said, “so each game, we’ll learn more about each other and our strengths. This is the beginning of the season so we got a long way to go.”

As Nguyen notes, the additions of Watkins, transfers Kayla Padilla (a three-time All-Ivy League Pennsylvania alum) and McKenzie Forbes (a Harvard alum), have helped elevate the Trojans to their best Associated Press poll slot since 1994, at No. 6. There are real expectations in the locker room now. USC just squared off against another of the best teams in the nation down, which just so happens to play down the street. 

But never fear. The Trojans will bounce back. They're too good not to.