If there’s one most important takeaway from the last four years of Paige Bueckers’ college basketball career, she explains, it’s this: “You never know what the outcome will be from day to day. You never know what life will throw at you.”
There was a time when Bueckers didn’t have to think that way and thought his plans would come to fruition. He was as he was when he arrived in Stores, Connecticut in the fall of 2020. She already knew her freshman season, outlined by COVID-19 testing, masks and quarantine protocols, wouldn’t be exactly what she always imagined. kid. Still, considering she had four seasons ahead of her, she had expectations and progress. Four years of healthy play, a few national titles, graduation, and at the end of it all, a spot in the 2024 WNBA Draft. .
Almost nothing goes as planned. In fact, Bueckers participated in the 2024 WNBA Draft but supported her teammates Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Mühl being drafted. She described that night as “surreal”, having always imagined that the class she entered with Edwards and Mühl would be the class she would graduate from. Instead, she’s now watching them on TV as they begin their WNBA careers, using one of two redshirt years to return to college offseason training.
Paige Bueckers supports her teammates. #WNBADraft pic.twitter.com/iQnI3sjNht
— Athletic WBB (@TheAthleticWBB) April 16, 2024
Bueckers has only played two sound seasons of college basketball, including one in which he was named national player of the year as a freshman and last season in which he was again an All-American. She has been to three Final Fours in four years but has never won a title.
She recalibrated her expectations, imagining her name being called in the 2025 WNBA draft. She said she plans to make the 2024-25 season her last at UConn. athletic.
“The sense of urgency is much greater,” Bueckers said. “This is my last year to do what I came here for: win a national championship. … No longer a ‘passive page’.”
As Bueckers enters his final chapter at Storrs with his first (and last) college offseason workout fully healthy, he’s focused on making sure to change his mindset while recognizing the need for flexibility. After all, that was her lesson that the last four years had taught her.
Bueckers’ final chance at a national title will come with a few adjustments. Edwards and Mühl are gone. Three returning upperclassmen — Azzi Fudd, Aubrey Griffin and Caroline Ducharme — suffered injuries. Kaitlyn Chen, a transfer from Princeton, has been settling into the program since arriving on campus in late May.
But roster turnover, which is nothing new for Bueckers, makes her mental shift that much more important as she prepares to take on much more.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma can point to March to remind Bueckers of his focus. Conversations about Bueckers’ aggressive mindset have been “ongoing” since she arrived on campus in 2020, he said. But the Huskies’ recent history, an unexpected run to the Final Four led by Bueckers, provides all the evidence she needs to continue being a little more unselfish on the court. Before the Big East Tournament, Auriemma said to Bueckers: “Paige, you need that to score 30 points every night. Make other people’s lives easier. We don’t have much choice. We don’t have much choice. So this is what we got. And we can’t be making noise about these things.”
That means no more Passive Paige.
Through five NCAA Tournament games, Buekers’ game has completely improved. During her regular season, averaging 21.3 points, 3.7 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game, she led the Huskies to their 23rd Final Four by averaging 25.8 points, 4.6 assists and 8 rebounds per game.
“I love scoring goals. I’ve always felt like a pass-first player. I love getting my team members involved. I like to make everyone happy,” Bueckers said. “But at the end of the day, everyone is happy when we win, and I think we have a better chance of winning when I’m aggressive.”
Auriemma added: “She is so kind and so considerate of what other people think. do not misunderstand. It’s really great and great quality. I’m not sure that’s a great quality for (a) killer superstar.”
Bueckers has learned too much over the past four seasons to make too many plans. Everything can change in an instant. She knows because she’s been there (many times). But with an increased sense of urgency, she is approaching this offseason differently. She wants to become a better scorer, passer and rebounder. When she asks her where her game could improve, numerous options come to Bueckers’ mind: range, 3-point shooting, off-the-dribble shooting, one-on-one movement, ball handling, and playing with both feet. , she is experimenting with tempo.
She tries not to live too far in the past or look too far into the future. She hasn’t yet rewatched the Huskies’ final game in the 2024 NCAA Tournament (a loss to Iowa), but she’ll get there. She knows she has to watch this one to fully turn the page on last season. As with any NCAA Tournament, lessons can be learned from those 40 minutes, but Bueckers still wonders if the game might have gone differently if she had been more aggressive. In her final year at UConn, she said she would never feel that way again after any game.
“I want to be an unselfish player and try to find the balance of being a player that people like to play with, but also being a killer, a scorer and a bucket getter,” she said. “It’s always been a battle of trying to find a happy medium, but going forward I think we need to be more aggressive first.”
(Paige Bueckers Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
