SPOKANE, Wash. — Ahead of the UConn women’s basketball team’s Sweet 16 matchup against Oklahoma, LSU star Flau’jae Johnson was struggling to decide who she was rooting for.
Johnson wanted to stay loyal to a fellow SEC squad, but after working out with Paige Bueckers over the summer, the Tigers guard knew better than to doubt the Huskies’ superstar on the NCAA Tournament stage. She eventually settled on UConn as her pick, and the instinct was a good one: The Huskies went on to rout Oklahoma 82-59 behind a historic 40-point performance from Bueckers.
“I just feel like they’re playing their best basketball right now. There’s nobody that can stop them right now — but they are playing an SEC team, so I have to go with the SEC,” Johnson said, before hesitating. “Well … I’m a Paige fan. I love Paige, and I’m always hoping that she does the best she can. I just feel like they’re playing great right now.”
Johnson and Bueckers first met during the 2023 offseason when both were serving as coaches for the Overtime Select WBB Takeover, a 5-on-5 showcase between several of the top-ranked players in upcoming recruiting classes. Bueckers’ 2023 team bested Johnson’s, and her squad came out on top again — though by a narrower margin — when they met for a rematch at the same event in Aug. 2024. The pair also sat courtside together during the WNBA All-Star game in July.
“Paige is cool as hell,” Johnson said with a smile. “She’s just somebody you can vibe with. She vibes with everybody. She’s quiet at first, but you know me, I’m bubbly, so she just knows how to kick it. That’s my dog.”
While they were in Atlanta for the WBB Takeover, Bueckers and Johnson worked out together with Overtime’s director of of player development Corey Frazier, who has also served a floor coach with USA Basketball and works as an NBA skills trainer.
Johnson leads No. 3 seed LSU averaging a career-high 18.3 points plus 5.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game in 2024-25, earning her the first first-team All-SEC honors of her career. She said playing alongside Bueckers over the summer gave her a different perspective on skills she could apply to her own game.
“She plays with so much pace, and it taught me a lot just watching her play in pickups,” Johnson said. “I was like dang, she’s really moving slow but fast, and that’s a skill, so that’s one of the main things I learned from her. And the way she shoots, she can really shoot that thing for real … We did a drill where we were supposed make like 45 (shots) in a minute, and she made like 50. I couldn’t even get to 45.”
‘It was incredible’: How Paige Bueckers exploded for career high, rallied UConn in comeback Sweet 16 win
Johnson and the Tigers held a pre-Elite Eight pep rally on Saturday in Spokane ahead of their matchup with No. 1 seed UCLA, so they didn’t get to watch UConn’s win over Oklahoma in person, but Johnson said she would be locked into the broadcast back at the team’s hotel. She also tuned in for the Huskies’ historic 103-34 rout of Arkansas State in the first round, and she said after that win that she saw elements of LSU’s style in the way UConn competed.
“Even though they were blowing them out, I watched the whole thing,” Johnson said. “The way that they communicated, the way they were playing with each other and sharing the ball, I really love that, so I feel like we kind of brought that into our game.”
Bueckers and Johnson have never played head-to-head in their college careers, and it has been nearly a decade since UConn and LSU last faced off for a regular-season matchup in Nov. 2016. The two programs have met in the NCAA Tournament twice before, in the 2000 Elite Eight and the 2007 Elite Eight — which was LSU’s only win in the history of the series. If LSU upsets UCLA in the Spokane 1 regional final Sunday and UConn beats USC in Spokane 4 on Monday night, the teams will face off for the first time in the Final Four.
“I never thought we would (play) for real, but if we do get the chance I would love that,” Johnson said, grinning. “I want another matchup since she beat me two times in a row at Overtime coaching, so I want my get-back.”
Originally Published:
.