Caitlin Clark was a one-woman wrecking crew, laying waste to the college basketball record books. She left Iowa at the end of the 2023-24 season as the NCAA's all-time leading scorer — man or woman. She also seized the record for most career points in the NCAA Tournament, for a man or woman with 492.
That total was accomplished over 17 games, an average of just over four tournament games per season with a scoring average of 28.9 points per game. Those numbers are going to be hard for anyone to match, but USC sophomore Juju Watkins is on track.
Juju Watkins has a decent chance to pass Caitlin Clark's tournament scoring record
Watkins still needs to play in a lot more tournament games and she'll need to up her scoring average but her freshman pace was ahead of Clark and a strong tournament run this year could bring her even closer.
Watkins scored a total of 110 points in four tournament games last season, an average of 27.5 points per game. However, Clark played in just three tournament games as a freshman, scoring 79 total points, an average of 26.3 points per game. She played in just two tournament games as a sophomore, pushing her scoring numbers to 121 total points in five games, 24.1 points per game. Watkins would need just 11 points in USC's first-round game this year to put herself ahead of Clark's two-year pace. Anything beyond that would be gravy.
Juju Watkins compared to the top scorers in March Madness history
PLAYER | FR. | SO. | Ju. | Sr. | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Caitlin Clark | 79 | 42 | 191 | 180 | 492 |
Chamique Holdsclaw | - | - | - | - | 479 |
Maya Moore | 93 | 124 | 144 | 115 | 476 |
Breanna Stewart | 75 | 108 | 112 | 122 | 446 |
Nneka Ogwumike | 75 | 118 | 117 | 134 | 444 |
Juju Watkins | 110 | - | - | - | - |
*Individual box score stats aren't available for tournament games during Chamique Holdsclaw's career, pre-2003
Deep tournament runs are going to be the key for Juju Watkins
The key to Clark's record was not just her prolific scoring but the fact that she appeared in 17 tournament games — making it to back-to-back National Finals. If Watkins wants to break the record, she'll have to keep scoring and keep leading USC on deep runs. In that regard, she may also have an edge on Clark.
In Clarks' sophomore season, Iowa was a No. 2 seed with a 26.07 SRS (strength-of-schedule adjusted point differential). USC has a very good chance at landing a No. 1 seed, despite losing to UCLA in the Big 10 Tournament, but they rate significantly stronger than that Iowa team, with a 39.05 SRS. Of course nothing is certain in March Madness but, on paper, this USC team is stronger than any of the four Iowa teams led by Clark and should be expected to move through several rounds this year.
As a program, there's every reason to think USC has a bright future for the next two years as well. They landed Kiki Iriafen in the transfer portal before this season, one of the most sought-after players available and should be poised to compete for any other top players intend to transfer at the end of the season. They'll lose Iriafen and key contributor Rayah Marshall to graduation but have already landed Jazzy Davidson, a five-star guard and the No. 2 ranked player in the incoming freshman class for next season.
All that is to say, we're still more than two years away from Watkins really being able to pass Clark. But she has the talent, she's on pace and the circumstances certainly seem to be lining up in her favor.