USC’s JuJu Watkins wins John R. Wooden Award as nation’s top women’s player over UConn’s Bueckers

By Canadian Press on April 5, 2025.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — JuJu Watkins is adding more hardware to her trophy case.

The Southern California sophomore guard won the John R. Wooden Award as the nation’s outstanding women’s basketball player on Saturday. She beat out UConn’s Paige Bueckers, who won in 2021, by 46 votes.

Watkins was honored as the The Associated Press player of the year on Friday.

The other finalists were Lauren Betts of UCLA, Madison Booker of Texas and Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame.

Voting took place from March 11-24 by a national panel of sportswriters and sportscasters, along with former Wooden Award winners.

The trophy will be presented April 11 at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

Watkins averaged 24.6 points per game for the Trojans before suffering a season-ending ACL injury in their second-round NCAA Tournament win over Mississippi State.

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