INDIANAPOLIS — JuJu Watkins has Caitlin Clark beat.
For now.
With 29 points in the Big Ten tournament title game Sunday, Watkins has already scored 1,684 points. That surpasses the 1,662 points Clark scored in her first two seasons at Iowa.
That Watkins is ahead of Clark right now isn’t a surprise. Watkins set the NCAA freshman scoring record last year, with 920 points, and has already played 65 games compared with the 62 Clark played as a freshman and sophomore.
Clark’s scoring rate didn’t really take off until her third season, either. She scored 1,055 points as a junior and 1,234 points as a senior, when she became the all-time scoring leader in major college basketball. Iowa also reached the national title game in each of Clark’s last two years, giving her additional opportunities to add to her points total.
Still, that Watkins is scoring at this fast a clip is impressive. Even Clark has been impressed, singling Watkins out after USC played at Iowa last month in the game where Clark’s jersey was retired.
‘JuJu, you’re awesome,” Clark said then. “It was fun to be here and watch you play.”
Watkins said then she doesn’t give much thought to scoring records. Keep piling up the points as she has, however, and she won’t have a choice. The entire country was fixated on Clark’s pursuit of Pete Maravich’s record, and there’ll be a similar spotlight if Watkins gets close to Clark.