If Paige Bueckers’s past four years of college basketball have taught us the most important lesson, it’s this, she explained: “You never know what’s going to happen from day to day. You never know in life.” What will it bring you.
There was a time when Bueckers didn’t necessarily think so, when she thought her plan would come to fruition. Just like she did when she arrived in Storrs, Connecticut, in the fall of 2020. A child like she had always imagined. Still, there’s a sense of anticipation and progress as she thinks about the four seasons ahead of her: four years of healthy playing, a few national championships, graduation and finally a berth in the 2024 WNBA draft.
Almost nothing goes according to plan. In fact, Bueckers is entering the 2024 WNBA Draft, but she’s there to support teammates Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Mir being drafted. She described the night as “surreal” and always thought the class she entered with Edwards and Mill was the class she left. Instead, she’s now watching on TV as they begin their WNBA careers while she returns to college offseason workouts using one of two available redshirt seasons.
Paige Bueckers supports her teammates during game #WNBADraft pic.twitter.com/iQnI3sjNht
— The Athletic WBB (@TheAthleticWBB) April 16, 2024
Bueckers played just two healthy seasons of college basketball, and as a freshman she was named the national player of the year, and last season she was an All-American again. She advanced to the Final Four three times in four years but never won a championship.
She recalibrated her expectations, imagining her name in the 2025 WNBA draft. She told us she plans to make the 2024-25 season her last at UConn Competitor.
“There’s a much greater sense of urgency,” Bux said. “This is my last year here, and that’s a national championship. … There’s no more ‘Passive Paige.’
As Bueckers enters her final chapter at Storrs, she’s going through her first (and last) college offseason workout of being fully healthy, and she’s focused on completely changing her mindset while recognizing flexibility sexual needs. After all, this is the lesson the past four years have taught her.
The Bucs’ last chance to compete for a national title will come with some adjustments. Edwards and Mill are gone. Three returning seniors — Azie Forde, Aubrey Griffin and Caroline Ducharme — are nursing injuries. Kaitlyn Chen, a transfer student from Princeton University, is adjusting to the program after arriving on campus in late May.
But the turnover in the lineup — nothing new for Bueckers — makes her mindset shift even more important as she prepares to take on more responsibility.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma could use March to alert Bueckers to her attention. He said discussions about Bueckers’ aggressive mentality have been “constant” since she arrived on campus in 2020. But the Huskies’ recent history, with an unexpected run to the Final Four under Bueckers, provides all the evidence she needs to continue to be more selfish on the court. Before the Big East tournament, Auriemma said he told Bueckers, “Paige, you need to score 30 points a night. Just make life easier for other people. We don’t have a lot of options. We don’t have a lot of options. This is what we get.” . We can’t hang out with this stuff.
In short: no more passive Peggy.
Through five NCAA tournament games, Bueckers’ game has completely improved. After averaging 21.3 points, 3.7 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game in the regular season, she averaged 25.8 points, 4.6 assists and 8 rebounds per game to lead the Huskies to their 23rd Final Four appearance.
“I love scoring. I’ve always felt like a pass-first player. I love getting my teammates involved. I love making sure everyone is happy,” Bueckers said. “But at the end of the day, when we win, everyone is happy and I think when I’m aggressive, we have a better chance of winning.”
Auriemma added: “She’s so nice and cares so much about what other people think. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very, very good trait. I just don’t know if it’s a good trait for a killer superstar. quality.
The Bucs have 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 (multiple times). But as the sense of urgency grows, she’s approaching this offseason differently. She hopes to become a better scorer, passer and rebounder. When asked what areas of her game she needs to improve on, Bueckers has no shortage of options that come to mind: range, three-point shooting, shooting off the dribble, one-on-one movement, ball handling, kicking with two feet, experimenting with rhythm.
She tries not to live too much in the past or look too far into the future. She hasn’t rewatched the Huskies’ final game of the 2024 NCAA Tournament — a loss to Iowa State — but she will. She knew she had to watch the movie to completely turn the page on last season. Just like the NCAA Tournament, there are lessons to be learned from these 40 minutes, but Bueckers still wonders if she had been a little more aggressive, maybe the outcome would have been different. In her final year at UConn, she said she will make sure she never feels that way again after any game.
“I want to be a selfless player, someone that people enjoy playing with, but at the same time, I’m trying to balance that with being a killer, a scorer, a scorer,” she said. “I’m always trying to find a compromise, but I think from now on I have to be more aggressive first.”
(Photo by Paige Bookers: Stephen Chambers/Getty Images)
