No. 1 WCBB Recruit Juju Watkins Commits to USC over South Carolina, Stanford

Juju Watkins, the top-ranked women's high school player in the class of 2023, announced her intention to play at USC on Tuesday.

The Sierra Canyon guard is California's Gatorade Girls Basketball Player of the Year and the top player in her class, per ESPN. She chose the Trojans over fellow finalists Stanford and South Carolina.

"I didn't want to rush this process," Watkins said, per Charlotte Gibson of ESPN. "A lot of people in my class had already committed before me, and I definitely was taking my time. But I want to make sure it was 1,000 percent where I wanted to go."

Watkins grew up just 10 minutes from the USC campus, so familiarity likely played a role in the Los Angeles native's decision to play for head coach Lindsay Gottlieb. Landing the top player in the 2023 class is a boon for Gottlieb, whose Trojans finished 12-16 in her first year with the program.

Watkins is just the third top-10 player in ESPN's rankings to sign with USC since 2007, as the program has largely taken a back seat on campus behind football and men's basketball. The arrival of the most dominant prep player in the nation should change the narrative, as Watkins has all the tools to make USC a Final Four team.

USC's women's basketball program was among the nation's best during the 1980s before struggling over the last three-plus decades. The Trojans have made the NCAA tournament just once in the last 15 years and have not reached the second week of the tournament since 1993-94.

Watkins' arrival might spark a much-desired turnaround. She will be joined in the 2023 class by promising point guard Malia Samuels, giving Gottlieb the building blocks of a stellar backcourt for years to come.