🏀 JuJu Watkins is ready to dominate March Madness — at both ends of the court
My Week in Sport(s) 🏀 🏏 ⚾️ 🏉 ⚽️
Welcome to My Week in Sport(s) — a regular newsletter from Plot the Ball.
Covered in this edition: 🏀 JuJu Watkins, 🏏 Virat Kohli, ⚾️ Roki Sasaki, 🏉 the Penrith Panthers and ⚽️ Mariona Caldentey.
🏀 JuJu Watkins is ready to dominate March Madness — at both ends of the court
At the top of women’s basketball, elite two-way play is non-negotiable. Last year, the three best WNBA players by Offensive Win Shares —Basketball Reference’s favoured all-in-one on-ball impact metric — were also the top three in its defensive equivalent.
JuJu Watkins has got the memo. She ranks 9th among all US college players in total Offensive Win Shares and 5th in total Defensive Win Shares this season — with two more years of NCAA eligibility remaining. The wing is one of only two players in the top 10 of both metrics this year. (Watch out for UConn freshman Sarah Strong.) As we covered in January, Watkins has improved her offensive play in year two at USC — even after a quiet couple of weeks to end the regular season depressed her numbers.
But it’s at the defensive end that she really stands out. At 6ft2in — already a couple of inches taller than the average WNBA player — Watkins is big for someone who plays primarily on the perimeter. And she uses her size to stop opponents getting the ball near the hoop: she’s averaged close to five combined steals and blocks per 40 minutes in both of her two seasons at USC, all while carrying a heavy scoring load.
Caitlin Clark — last March’s main attraction — is also labelled on the chart above for context. Watkins’ offensive impact isn’t yet as significant as the Iowa star’s, especially when you account for her per-possession efficiency. (Clark’s worst college season by
’ ‘Points per Play’ measure is equal to Watkins’ best.) But there is immense value in her ability to create additional possessions for her team — and take them away from her opponents — through exceptional defensive playmaking.USC begin their postseason today as the top seed in the Big Ten Tournament; as one of the highest-rated teams in the nation, they will carry significant expectations into the NCAA Tournament later this month, too. On the biggest of stages, Watkins — who led her team to the ‘Elite 8’ as a freshman last year — is unlikely to dominate as much as Clark did with the ball. Just don’t underestimate what she brings to her team without it: as a two-way force, there’s no one in college basketball quite like her.
🏏 Despite his test batting slump, Virat Kohli remains peerless at the top of the order in ODIs
The recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy didn’t go the way of India — and it certainly didn’t go the way of Virat Kohli, who was dismissed eight times for a total of only 190 runs. Throughout his prolonged slump in tests, though, he has remained the king of ODIs.
Both Kohli and his great Australian rival Steven Smith batted at three for their teams in Tuesday’s Champions Trophy semi-final; India won comfortably, with Kohli in the driver’s seat for most of the run-chase. All of the ‘big four’ — Kohli, Smith, Joe Root and Kane Williamson — have done most of their batting at number three in ODI cricket, and all have shown their quality by averaging comfortably more runs per dismissal than their peers. Only Kohli, though, has coupled that with scoring efficiency.
His role has subtly changed over time; as India as a team have scored quicker and quicker, Kohli has been content to let others take care of the acceleration. (In 58 innings since the 2019 World Cup, he’s recorded the same strike rate as the other top-order batters in his games.) And that’s what happened on Tuesday: he kept pace with the other top-order batters, while facing more balls than any of them. His teammates might have finished the job, but once again it was Virat Kohli who set the table.
What else I learned last week
⚾️ Roki Sasaki’s splitter might already be the most unique in baseball
As expected, all eyes were on the radar gun during Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki’s first Spring Training appearance for the Los Angeles Dodgers. His fastball looked particularly promising: it averaged 98 mph, a tick higher than last year in NPB.
But it was his splitter — thought to be a plus pitch by MLB standards before Tuesday — that was more intriguing. The greater the difference in speed a pitcher can create between two pitches that ‘tunnel’ well, the harder it is to make good contact — and analyst
spotted that Sasaki has slowed his splitter by 3 mph from his time in Japan. There was also surprise at its unpredictable lateral movement and lack of spin; after one outing, expectations for this pitch might already be higher.🏉 A fit Nathan Cleary should boost the Penrith Panthers’ attack in 2025
Rugby league’s ‘globalisation strategy’ continues. The latest NRL season has just kicked off in Las Vegas — and an American audience got to watch the Penrith Panthers, four-time repeat champions, win their first game of 2025 last Sunday.
The Panthers’ defensive strength has driven their run of titles. Losing several key players to other teams has dented their cohesion, though, and their underlying performance without the ball did fall off last year. Their attack also dropped to league-average levels — but key playmaker Nathan Cleary only played 38% of their regular-season minutes due to injury. Signs in Round 1 were good: with Cleary fit, they scored more points than they averaged in 2024 against one of the league’s best defences.
⚽️ Mariona Caldentey is contributing more out of possession in the WSL
Despite creating better chances than England, Spain lost their Nations League tie last week. Arsenal’s versatile Mariona Caldentey started for them in a makeshift midfield — next to several former Barça teammates, and across from some of her current ones.
The 28-year-old moved from Liga F to the WSL last summer, finding better working conditions off the pitch — and looking for “new challenges” on it. Caldentey has taken up a deeper position in Arsenal’s build-up — she’s recording more progressive passes and fewer progressive receptions than she did for Barça — but it’s out of possession that she’s really being tested. In her Liga F career, she recorded 42 touches for every tackle or interception she made; in the WSL so far, that rate has dropped to just 15.
The next edition of My Week in Sport(s) will be published on Friday March 14th.
