TAMPA – The shrill little voices echoed throughout the Spokane Arena. “We love you, Paige,” a group of elementary school-aged girls called out.
UConn 6-foot redshirt senior guard Paige Bueckers had just led her team to a Final Four – the fourth in her career and 24th in program history. She had 40 points in a Sweet Sixteen victory over Oklahoma and 31 in the Elite Eight against USC. Bueckers had done countless interviews, signed endless posters and T-shirts and had just played 40 minutes of high-level basketball. Bueckers didn’t have much more to give. But she found energy for the little voices.
Bueckers could have simply waved in their general direction, could have smiled into the void, could have ignored them. Instead, she raised her gaze and scanned every section of the stands until she located the girls – near the top of the arena. Then she grinned and threw up her hand to acknowledge her dedicated fans.
Bueckers doesn’t have to do these things. But she does. She always does.
“She cares so much for the people around her that sometimes she forgets about herself,” 6-foot-5 redshirt freshman center Jana El Alfy said Saturday during a media availability before Sunday’s UConn-South Carolina national championship game.
Bueckers has been in the spotlight since high school, when she was the country’s No. 1 recruit coming out of Hopkins (Minn.) High, in the Minneapolis suburbs. She was a teenager when she used an ESPY speech to honor the Black women who built up the game she loves. She was a junior at UConn when she tore her ACL, missing an entire season. She watched as Caitlin Clark became the media darling and was heralded as the best player in the country – a title that used to belong to her.
When Clark graduated, Bueckers was asked if she was excited to be back in the spotlight. She said she wanted to share the wealth and hoped she didn’t dominate media coverage. In news conferences, she manages to praise her teammates and crack jokes. She speaks with admiration about UConn’s legacy and also always recognizes the greatness of her opponents.
Somehow, at every turn, Bueckers has managed to say and do all the right things. And those who know her best say that persona is authentic.
“Everything that you all have said about her, that everybody’s written about her, it’s all true,” coach Geno Auriemma said after her Senior Day game. “Every part of it. I wouldn’t be able to sit here and add anything to that. Her game and what she does speaks for itself, and it’s a testament to her, to her work, to her love of basketball, love of being in the gym. She’s being rewarded and that in itself is just fulfilling. It is for me and I hope it is for her.”
Auriemma loves to joke with, and about, Bueckers. He calls her annoying and is quick to point out her mistakes. His sarcastic sense of humor stops him from being too mushy too often, but during this tournament run, he has spoken multiple times of Bueckers with tears in his eyes.
“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,” Auriemma said. “She’s the first one. So for her to get all the attention she gets, have all the demands on her life, all the expectations in her life, and still be able to deliver, she’s very unique. … I’m really going to miss her.”
That is what she means to Auriemma, to UConn and to women’s basketball. Bueckers hasn’t won a title. Of course she wants to, but whatever happens against South Carolina on Sunday doesn’t change her legacy.
When El Alfy first arrived at UConn from Egypt, she knew who Bueckers was. She was starstruck. But that feeling quickly turned to admiration. Saturday, El Alfy launched into a soliloquy about Bueckers. As with Auriemma, the affection she has for Bueckers is apparent and real.
When she talks about Bueckers, El Alfy says she is “so proud.” That language is a trickle down from Bueckers herself. Any time she is asked about a teammate, Bueckers is “so proud.” Everyone on the team speaks in Paige-isms. They’re “taking it day by day.” They’re “embracing the moment.” They’re “locked in.” They’re “present in the moment.”
When she says something, her teammates take it to heart. They want to be like her – and they want to win for her.
“When I actually got to know her, she is not just that person that everybody sees on TV,” El Alfy said. “She is so much more than that. She’s been through a lot and she deserves this more than anyone else.”
But just because she deserves it doesn’t mean she will get it. Bueckers knows that. She’s been in this spot before, in 2022, against South Carolina in the title game. She also knows that she’s not the only player who deserves to win. That’s the thing about playing at this point in the season. Everyone has worked hard. Everyone has been through adversity.
“For someone who’s invested so much into the University of Connecticut, the community, the team, her teammates, and loves the game so much, she deserves to go out as a national champion,” Auriemma said. “But so do a bunch of kids at South Carolina that have done the exact same thing. And that’s the beauty of it. Only one of those is going to get to be able to do that. And what I want for Paige is the same thing that Dawn (Staley, the Gamecocks’ coach) wants for her kids.”
Whatever happens, Bueckers will leave college basketball the same way she came in: by saying and doing all the right things.
