February 15, 2025
Locked On Women’s Basketball: Watkins and Iriafen send shockwaves from USC
By The Next
Shafer: 'JuJu is an absurd shot maker'
On the latest episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, host Hunter Cruse is joined by co-hosts Emily Adler and Lincoln Shafer to discuss USC’s recent defeat of UCLA, in which phenom guard JuJu Watkins put up 38 points and 8 blocks for her team’s winning performance. The hosts also discuss USC forward Kiki Iriafen‘s draft prospects, and more.
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The hosts open the show by discussing the performance they saw from Watkins at Wednesday night’s game. “JuJu is an absurd shot maker,” Shafer says. “And she’s been building up to this. … It looks like, if JuJu has a bad stretch, she is going to explode at the end of it and just start setting records.”
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Here at The Next, in addition to the 24/7/365 written content our staff provides, we also host the daily Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast. Join us Monday through Saturday each week as we discuss all things WNBA, collegiate basketball, basketball history and much more. Listen wherever you find podcasts or watch on YouTube.
Later on, the hosts discuss the WNBA drafts, and particularly the fact that Lithuanian guard Justė Jocytė is officially eligible to be drafted. “[She is] truly one of the best teenage basketball players of all time,” Cruse says. After explaining Jocytė’s background, Cruse clarifies that she will officially be eligible for the draft, if she wants to enter. “I think that’s pretty huge for this class,” he says.
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To close out the show, the hosts discuss Maryland guard Shyanne Sellers‘s recent performance in the school’s loss against Nebraska. “She came out the gate firing,” Shafer says. “She hit two threes in the first five minutes. … [Her] movement was huge. ”
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