Swanson: USC star JuJu Watkins is inevitable

LOS ANGELES — JuJu Watkins, not invincible. Inevitable.

The JuJu Train might have paused at the station to let a few impatient passengers off the past couple weeks, but we know those fools changed their minds and scrambled right back on Thursday night as the basketball history express headed off again.

Perhaps you heard. Hopefully you watched. If you saw it on TV, I know you’re still thinking about it. And that if you were there, in packed-to-the-gills Galen Center, you won’t forget Watkins’ 38-point, eight-block, 11-rebound, five-assist, made-for-the-moment masterpiece.

It came in No. 6 USC’s stunning 71-60 victory over No. 1 UCLA – the first time since 1983 that the Trojans (22-2, 12-1 Big Ten) knocked off a top-ranked team. And the first time these Bruins (23-1, 11-1) lost all season.

No other player has had such a stupid and stupendous stat line (adding Watkins’ six 3-pointers) this century. Not in men’s or women’s college basketball, not in the WNBA or NBA.

The timing of her super-heroics – after her most recent 5-for-21 shooting effort in a victory over Ohio State, and recently before that, going 8 for 22 in a loss to Iowa following a 7-for-24 clunker against Minnesota – made it all seem sweeter.

And whom it came against? Sweeter still.

Asked postgame whether, in light of personnel hopping between football and men’s basketball programs recently, the USC-UCLA rivalry seemed watered down, Watkins laughed. Out loud.

No, sir. Thursday was JuJu on the Beat the Bruins business, same as she’d be today, tomorrow, twice on Sundays, and again March 1, when the teams meet again – blessed are those who have tickets to that sold-out showdown at Pauley Pavilion.

If anything, these high-stakes, center-of-the-women’s-basketball-universe matchups are spiked with a healthy dose of animus.

Might be why the Bruins’ Gabriela Jaquez avoided saying the other school’s name this week, and though complimentary, only referred to Watkins as “No. 12.” Did you catch USC’s Kennedy Smith and UCLA’s Londynn Jones clapping in the faces of the players they were defending, or trying to – Kiki Rice and No. 12?

How about when a USC airball brought the entire UCLA bench to its feet? Or when Talia von Oelhoffen, getting a breather on USC’s sideline, hit the universal palm-to-the-floor “too small” gesture after her teammate Kiki Iriafen scored in the post.

These teams seem like they actually might not to like each other much.

Love that for them. And for us.

And maybe especially for the Trojans, whose successful if unsteady arc this season needed a game like this to get them – and Watkins, the 6-foot-2 sophomore guard – to start feeling and stop thinking so much.

“It doesn’t fall on my shoulders solely,” Watkins said when asked to explain the art of the takeover. “It’s not really a calculated thing, it’s just, like, a feel for the game.”

Turns out our Luca Evans, Southern California News Group’s USC beat writer, was onto something when noted how loose Watkins looked warming up pregame.

And I’ll say, I thought I recognized the swagger in her gait walking onto the court, where rain couldn’t keep away 10,258 energized attendees, including a contingent of celebrities to rival any Lakers game.

There were Vanessa Bryant and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea (in a yellow T-shirt depicting Watkins’ “SLAM” magazine cover). Also, Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels and Sparks stars Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby, as well as a whole hyped contingent of former USC greats, led by Cheryl Miller. Actors Kevin Hart, Issa Rae and, to Watkins’ delight, Sanaa Lathan, who starred as Monica in “Love and Basketball.” Add to that Kayla Padilla, one of the breakout stars of last season’s tone-setting USC team was in the building too, taking photos with kids before tipoff.

“It was an amazing crowd,” Watkins said. “And when you have people like that show up, you can’t disappoint, you know?”

Should say not. There was Watkins’ personal deluge, raining 3-pointers, all six of them in the first half. Her three consecutive blocks – wop, wop, wop – in a backbreaking sequence in a fourth quarter that USC dominated, 24-8 … en route to her third consecutive victory over the Bruins, counting the double-overtime thriller in last season’s Pac-12 Championship tournament semifinals.

And Watkins’ crowd really went wild when her trademark Euro step to the basket gave the Trojans back the lead 53-52 early in the fourth quarter.

It was the type of performance we expect from our all-time athletes. That we’re spoiled by. That we shouldn’t take for granted.

Because it isn’t easy. She’s not just carrying a team with championship aspirations, but she’s also standing as one of the load-bearing pillars for a sport whose time has finally come on her time.

She knows people come out and tune in and invest their time and attention every game to see her best self and not much less.

Heavy is the crown on the bun of this 19-year-old from L.A., who is still a sophomore, and still human and not immune from the occasional slump, as each magnified miss reminded us.

So human. When those recent shooting struggles came up postgame and Trojans center Clarice Akunwafo scoffed, “I didn’t even realize she was struggling until now,” Watkins looked across the table at her teammate, touched: “Thank you, C.”

Akunwafo might be surprised to learn that all week it seemed that everyone beside the most devoted USC supporters were picking UCLA to win, sometimes by 20.

As if Watkins wasn’t going to be dressing for USC.

As if she wasn’t bound to find the joy in this tantalizing tug-of-war with the rivals from across town.

As she isn’t, as the great ones prove to be, inevitable.