How does women’s college basketball replace a transcendent superstar becoming a new type of household name, a heated rivalry between trade-ready figures and their respective teams’ quest to dethrone the sport’s reigning titan?

And with two mega-If momentum is to continue into this college season, much of it will rely on the star power of UConn senior guard Paige Bueckers and USC sophomore guard JuJu Watkins. Talent with major crossover appeal leading a pair of bicoastal powers and their quest to take down…this same reigning titan?

Last season, Caitlin Clark set a new college scoring record and led her Iowa team to the national title game — all with her signature traits of ridiculous 3-point shooting and passing.

Clark’s exploits catalyzed unprecedented audience levels and attention to sport. The Caitlin Clark effect, as it was called.

Three successive games set a record for the most-watched women’s college basketball game in history: Iowa’s victory over LSU and Clark’s multi-year foil Angel Reese in the Elite Eight (12, 3 million); Iowa’s controversial Final Four victory over UConn (14.2 million); and Iowa’s loss to undefeated South Carolina in the championship ($18.7 million).

It was either an irreplaceable phenomenon, a unique story with the steep arc of one of Clark’s 3 logos, or a model for how women’s basketball could capture and then retain the eyeballs.

If momentum is to continue into this college season, much of it will rely on the star power of UConn senior guard Paige Bueckers and USC sophomore guard JuJu Watkins.

With the style and NIL profiles to match, unanimous preseason All-America picks lead two of the top three projected teams in the country.

If Clark’s game evokes that of Steph Curry, Watkins is Kevin Durant, a completely unstoppable three-level scorer, and Bueckers is a kind of lanky LeBron James, an offensive dynamo who always prefers to pass and who the coach of Carolina of the South, Dawn Staley, once called him “probably the elite basketball player to grace our game.”

But while there is a head-to-head dynamic between Bueckers and Watkins, it’s less about the “you can’t see me” hand waving between Clark and Reese and more about the “can you top that?” variety. Each could follow Clark as the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft — Bueckers this spring, Watkins not until 2027.

Bueckers enters his fifth year at UConn after posting a career-high 21.9 points per game last season, which followed two seasons marred by leg injuries. There was a time in 2020-21 when Bueckers was ranked ahead of Clark, and that day could yet come again.

“Anyone who watched her play knows that when Paige was a freshman, there was no one better in the country than Paige. …And then she kind of faded out of the spotlight because of some injuries,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma recently told reporters. “Putting a player like Paige on your team automatically makes you a national championship contender.”

Watkins ranked second in the nation with 27.1 points per game as a freshman, with 40.1 percent room for improvement in shooting. Now, USC’s move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten means additional exposure playing in more and earlier time zones.

The 19-year-old Los Angeles native deserves all the credit Clark got for staying home to revitalize a dormant program. Watkins said Clark offered advice on how to navigate his growing stardom.

“To have that kind of mentorship and that relationship with her, it really means a lot,” Watkins said, according to the Associated Press. “She has had the biggest impact on women’s basketball, and being able to follow her journey is truly inspiring.”

Alongside their individual exploits, Bueckers’ once-dynastic Huskies (without a title since 2016) or Watkins’ Trojans (without a title since 1984, during Cheryl Miller’s heyday) are on a collision course with the South Carolina juggernaut – or with all of them. the other, for some Yankees-Dodgers energy, is the kind of narrative that can fuel the sport’s continued growth.

Call it the Paige Bueckers effect or the JuJu Watkins effect. It remains to be seen to what extent.

“A lot has changed — the viewership and attention that women’s basketball (receives) is a key point,” UConn guard Azzi Fudd, who is Bueckers’ best friend, told the Post after last season. “It brings different things to men’s football, and true fans of the sport will really appreciate it. And that’s what people started to learn. And I think it’s just amazing to finally be able to get this recognition.