“I have seen something different in her during the tournament,” said Lobo, an ESPN analyst who led Connecticut to the 1995 national championship. “I was like, ‘Oh, this Paige is different.’ Because normally if somebody is open, she’s spraying the ball. This is like, ‘It’s time for me to take over and get our team to the next round’ Paige. There’s a feeling of that.”
The journey for one of the most recognized players in the college game over the past five seasons is coming to an end this weekend at the Final Four, and Bueckers might feel a bit of urgency. She is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft this month, and this is the last run of a storied college career. Bueckers was named national player of the year as a freshman, is a three-time all-American and ranks third in career points, ninth in assists and fifth in player efficiency in U-Conn. history. The Huskies have advanced to four Final Fours in her five seasons. One thing is missing, though — a national title for a program that has 11. Only she and Kerry Bascom rank in the top 10 of Huskies scorers without at least one championship.
“Before you even get here, you kind of know the pressures that exist by committing to U-Conn.,” Bueckers said. “And once you walk inside the practice facility, you see all the history, all the names, all the banners, it’s just motivation. Obviously there’s expectations here. And anything less than a national championship is really a disappointment.”
There hasn’t been much disappointment for a Connecticut team that enters Friday with a 35-3 record, and the Huskies seem loose here in Tampa. Bueckers couldn’t stop grinning as she gave a mischievous look toward two of her teammates Thursday afternoon. She, Aubrey Griffin and Kaitlyn Chen were taking their seats on the dais for a news conference when one of them banged the table so hard that it shook and the sound echoed throughout the room inside Amalie Arena.
The trio snickered as if someone had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
The Huskies haven’t lost since they fell to Tennessee on Feb. 6. In their final seven regular season games, including a convincing win over defending national champion South Carolina, U-Conn. averaged a 34.1-point margin of victory. In three conference tournament games, the average margin of victory was 26.3. And in the NCAA tournament, the Huskies have rolled to the Final Four with an average win of 35 points.
And Bueckers has been leading the charge, particularly in the postseason. Her teammates have seen it and felt it.
“Her sense of urgency rubs off on everyone, just how hardworking she is,” Griffin said. “You can tell she’s really determined. The traits that she brings to the game, it rubs off on everyone.”
Bueckers is enjoying the run and trying to live in the moment. Everyone wants to ask about her future in the WNBA and even about her legacy, but she is soaking up these final college games. Part of that developed from her experience during her sophomore and junior years, when the game was taken away from her. As a sophomore, she underwent surgery in December 2021 to address significant knee injuries. Then she tore her ACL the following summer and missed her entire junior season, watching as her status as the next face of the game was usurped by Iowa star Caitlin Clark, who went on to set the NCAA career scoring record.
She admitted the first week after her injury was one of the darkest times she has ever had.
“Just a negative state of like: ‘Why me? Why now?’” Bueckers said. “Bit of shock and disbelief that this was happening to me. But after I got my surgery, it was then switched to a motivation. It shifted my eyes. Appreciation of everything. Appreciation of life. Appreciation of waking up in the morning and how big of a blessing that is.”
That attitude produced the highest-scoring season of her career last year, when she averaged 21.9 points and led the Huskies back to the Final Four, where they lost by two to Clark and Iowa.
The past five years have created a father-daughter-type bond between Bueckers and Coach Geno Auriemma. They lovingly chide each other in public. He coaches her as hard as anyone in practice, and she accepts it. Auriemma isn’t one to wax poetically, but he seems to be softening of late. Even for someone who has coached Maya Moore, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Lobo and many other all-Americans, his emotions are building as the end of Bueckers’s U-Conn. career nears.
“She just is the most incredibly positive human being I’ve ever been around,” Auriemma said. “I’ve admired that in her forever, that she believes in herself, whether you believe in her or not, and I happen to believe in her 100,000 percent.
“I feel for her, too, because I don’t think I’ve ever coached someone in this generation where they have to deal with this type of scrutiny and pressure that comes from the world that they live in. … I think she’s closer to one or two or three of the most unique players I’ve ever coached. And I’m really going to miss her. I can’t say that out loud.”
In the meantime, she’s Cori Close’s problem. The UCLA coach has known Bueckers since she was a teenager and coached her on a Under-19 World Cup team. Close laughed as she reminisced about recruiting both Bueckers and U-Conn. guard Azzi Fudd and getting turned down by both of them. Bueckers’s scoring and efficiency has been well documented, but Close said she is most impressed by her vision and passing skills. The 6-foot point guard who can score on all three levels, facilitate to teammates and do it all without being rushed is at the top of UCLA’s scouting report.
There’s plenty on the line Friday. UCLA has reached the first Final Four in program history but is chasing even greater heights. And Bueckers is looking to etch her name even deeper among the all-time greats at U-Conn., and there’s only one piece of hardware missing.
“She certainly will leave as one of the most popular players the program has ever seen,” Lobo said. “Would a national championship sort of cement her legacy as a winner? Of course it would. She’s still an incredible player, a winner. She’s led her team to four Final Fours. She still is all that. A national championship might give it a little bit more weight.”