UConn-USC billed as Paige vs. JuJu, but surrounding casts more likely to decide outcome

UConn women’s basketball is no stranger to playing big games during the regular season. From the Tennessee series in the 1990s and 2000s to the many meetings with Notre Dame through the recent matchups with South Carolina, the Huskies are usually a part of the most-anticipated games on the schedule — and they’re billed as such.

UConn has another on deck when the No. 7 USC Trojans visit the XL Center on Saturday. Geno Auriemma has certainly heard all the hype surrounding it.

“What's the scoop on the latest game of the century?” he joked. “I don’t know how many games of the centuries we've played but this is another one.”

Not only is it a top-10 matchups and a rematch of the Elite Eight last March, it’ll also feature arguably the two best players in the nation: UConn’s Paige Bueckers and USC’s JuJu Watkins.

Bueckers is a two-time All-American and former national player of the year. Watkins is coming off a stellar season in which she set the all-time freshman scoring record, finished second only to Caitlin Clark with 27.1 points — including a 51-point effort at Stanford — and earned unanimous First Team All-American honors.

Yet while those two are the headliners, they probably won’t decide who wins.

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