A CLASS BY HERSELF
Huskies phenom on her way to becoming a transcendent player
Better than most could have expected at this point and now designated as the best, period, Paige Bueckers became the first freshman in women’s college basketball history to be named Associated Press national player of the year on Wednesday.
Already, she just about owns the sport — occupies one of the most decorated seats in the amateur arena, anyway — and is being celebrated at levels it took legends before her at least another year to reach. No player has stuck a flag into the NCAA landscape with more authority or made more of an immediate impact upon arrival.
“I thought for sure she’d be good right away, I thought for sure she’d be a starter, I thought for sure she’d score 10-15 points a game,” said Brian Cosgriff, Bueckers’ coach at Hopkins High in Minnetonka, Minn. “I didn’t think she would become the icon she is so instantly.”
Bueckers was billed as basketball’s next “can’t miss” prospect one magazine cover and Instagram follower at a time in Minnesota, but even the most heralded UConn players reach a certain stature in Storrs only after marinating in the college game for a while, maturing, learning, developing.
That’s just how it goes. Or how it’s always gone. From Diana Taurasi to Maya Moore to Breanna Stewart, even to Shea Ralph and Nykesha Sales and others, UConn has welcomed plenty of top national prospects by alleviating pressure with a show of patience. Coach Geno Auriemma thought the process would play out similarly with Bueckers. He even considered playing her off the bench to start the season, as he did with Taurasi in 2000-01.
“But once practice started and once we were together for about a week and I saw the way she handled herself, the way she handled the things that were being thrown at her, how she managed being in that situation among players that she just barely knew, that’s when it kind of went out the window,” Auriemma said. “And it was, ‘You know, we’ve only been here two weeks but she’s the best player on our team.’ … I didn’t expect this to happen this soon. I knew it would happen at some point. I just didn’t expect it to be that quickly and that evident. Nothing that’s happened has surprised me. How quickly it happened and how consistent it’s been throughout the year, that’s been quite surprising and quite rewarding.”
Bueckers was a threetime Minnesota Gatorade Player of the Year, as well as the 2020 Gatorade National Player and Athlete of the Year. Karl-Anthony
Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves surprised Bueckers at the Hopkins gym to deliver that award.
The kid has been a big deal for a while, no question.
Still, Bueckers becoming the face of college basketball in the lickety-split time of a no-look pass is one of the more remarkable individual stories in UConn history. Bueckers hasn’t yet played in a Final Four. But she has earned a banner bearing her name in the Werth Champions Center.
Eight other Huskies have won the AP award 11 times. Moore (2009, 2001) and Stewart (2014, 2015, 2016) both won for the first time as sophomores. The rest (Rebecca Lobo, Jen Rizzotti, Kara Wolters, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles) won as a junior or senior.
Riding a social media tidal wave, Bueckers is already as popular as some WNBA and NBA players.
Cosgriff, who left Hopkins after last season, is on vacation in Florida this week.
“I’m walking in the hotel and people ask me where I’m from and I say Minneapolis,” he said. “They say, ‘You’re from where Paige Bueckers is from.’ I say, ‘Yeah, I coached her.’ I mean, I’m in Miami, you know? It’s really become, I’m from the same town as Paige Bueckers. It’s unbelievable, considering the Hall of Famers who have been at UConn. I never would have thought this. I knew she was good and I knew she would be a player, but not like this.”
It’s Paige’s world right now, though. She’s averaging
20.1 points, 5.9 assists and 4.8 rebounds for the Huskies, who defeated Baylor Monday in the Elite Eight — behind a program NCAA Tournament-record 28 points from Bueckers. Earlier this season she became the first UConn player to score 30 points in three consecutive games, all the while crediting her teammates and pulling additional interest toward the sport.
“That’s a huge reason why I play is to shine light on others, give opportunities to others,” Bueckers said. “To just be able to shine that light on the women’s game is really a huge reason why I play. I want to continue to do that, use my platform, use my social media presence, to just continue to share this light. I know I get a lot of
attention in the media but I want to be able to share that with other teams, other great players. I know I’m not the only one in the county that could be fit for this award.”
One of Bueckers’ closest friends — her prom date, in fact — is Jalen Suggs, another Twin Cities-area native. Suggs is a freshman guard for a Gonzaga men’s team that has also reached the Final Four, in Indianapolis, and is two victories shy of a perfect season. The Bulldogs would be the first Division I men’s team with an undefeated national championship since 1976.
After Gonzaga’s breezy 85-66 Elite Eight victory over Southern Cal on Tuesday, Suggs said he had nervously watched UConn’s victory over Baylor the night before.
“I was pacing back and forth,” he said. “I texted (Bueckers) after, and we FaceTimed and talked for a little bit. … She said some things that really helped me. I’ve been kind of struggling, trying to get my footing in these tournament games. Seeing her go out there and play great like she did and then talking afterwards, she said some words (that) got me uplifted. It got me going. Definitely helped. She’s the GOAT for a reason.”
Suggs, also an elite football player at Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis, attended many of Bueckers’ games in high school and vice versa.
“He was at our section game last year when we beat Wayzata, and it was pretty cool because he came in the team room afterwards and there was a line out the door to get Paige’s autograph and his autograph and pictures of them together,” Cosgriff said. “How cool would it be for both Jalen and Paige to win the national championship in their first year of college basketball? That says something about the state of Minnesota and the level of basketball that we play here. We’re kind of known as the hockey state, but that tells you something.”
Suggs, projected as a top-3 NBA draft pick, is expected to leave school after this season. The structure is different on the women’s side, with players required to either turn 22 in a draft’s calendar year or be four years removed from high school.
Bueckers, 19, came to UConn with a brand that has blown up. Her Instagram following is up to 743,000 and she is considered among the most marketable athletes in college sports, set to cash in if and when players can profit from their name, image and likeness.
That could happen next year — when one of her closest friends, Azzi Fudd, an equally elite talent, joins the Huskies. UConn does not have a senior on the roster. The 2020-21 season, no matter whether it ends with a 12th championship, could be the start of something remarkable for the program and its best player — who in the eyes of the AP’s national media panel is simply the best player in America.
Already.