Uconn’s Bueckers first freshman to win AP Player of the Year
Paige Bueckers has made Uconn history all season long. Now, she’s making history on the national stage as well.
Bueckers became the first freshman to win the Associated Press Player of the Year award, the organization announced Wednesday.
Uconn coach Geno Auriemma presented Bueckers the award Monday during a team film session. She was emotional as she accepted it, thanking her teammates and coaching staff for helping make her success possible.
“This is something I dreamt of doing as a kid,” Bueckers told reporters Wednesday. “I mean, you can’t even really dream of it because it seems so surreal and seems so impossible. But I know with God on my side, anything is possible”
The freshman guard from Minnesota was the runaway pick, earning
21 of a possible 30 votes. Louisville’s Dana Evans came in second with four votes. Bueckers averaged 19.7 points, 6.1 assists and 2.3 steals per game as well as a 47.4 3-point field-goal percentage in the regular season. In San Antonio, she’s averaging 22.5 points on 47.0% shooting (36.8% on 3s), 4.5 assists, 2.5 steals and just 2.0 turnovers per game, leading the Huskies to the program’s 13th straight Final Four berth with wins over High Point,
Syracuse, Iowa and Baylor.
“When I was told that I was actually the first freshman ever [to win the honor], I didn’t believe it,” Bueckers said.
In typical Bueckers fashion, she wanted to shift attention away from herself and to her Uconn teammates instead. It’s evident how much they care about her, too: The team swarmed her with a group hug after she received her award.
“That’s the most important thing to me, just being a great teammate,” Bueckers said. “For them to just take me in, I know I get a lot of attention and they’re really selfless about it. We don’t care who gets the individual accolades, and we don’t care who gets all the credit. We just want to win, and I think that’s what’s so special about this team. They’ve never gotten jealous or envious of anything that I’ve done or anybody on our team has gotten. They’ve always been supportive, and they’ve always been by my side and backing me up and always having my back.
“Without them, I wouldn’t get this individual award,” Bueckers said. “I’m really getting it because of them.”
Bueckers first gained national attention in high school. Highlight videos with her no-look passes and lethal jumpers went viral long before she’d even showed up in Storrs. Since arriving to Uconn, her legend has only grown with consistently standout play, dagger 3s against Tennessee and South Carolina and a 28-point performance against Baylor in the Elite Eight.
Aware of the platform awarded to her, Bueckers wants to use it to draw greater attention to the women’s game as a whole.
“To be able to shine that light on the women’s game, it’s really a huge reason why I play,” Bueckers said. “I want to continue to do that and use my platform and use my social media presence to 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, with other great players because I know
I’m not the only one in the country that could be fit for this award. There’s Dana Evans, Rhyne Howard, Aliyah Boston, Elissa Cunane. Everybody in the country who’s been doing great things all season, I want to shine that light on them and make it possible for them to get as much attention as I do.”
Uconn players have now taken home the AP national player of the year award 12 times, with Bueckers becoming the ninth Husky to win the honor. The former winners include: Rebecca Lobo (1995), Jen Rizzotti (1996), Kara Wolters (1997), Sue Bird (2002), Diana Taurasi (2003), Maya Moore (2009, 2011), Tina Charles (2010) and Breanna Stewart (2014-2016).