Bueckers checks all the boxes in UConn debut

STORRS — The word used to get out when they were in high school. There’s a basketball wunderkind in California, New York, Georgia. Over the years, they became younger, more readily available on video and the anticipation, the hype only got louder and longer.

Diana Taurasi, the talkative high school senior from Chino came across the continent for Geno Auriemma’s 2000 Final Four homecoming, for UConn’s second national championship and the ripples of excitement ran through Philadelphia. By the time The Next Great One arrived in Storrs in 2007, Pat Summit was so upset about UConn beating her out for Maya Moore that Tennessee leveled several NCAA violation claims that proved as bewildering as Donald Trump’s election lawsuits.

And now here was Paige Bueckers, with her 600,000 Instagram followers, the most anticipated UConn star since Breanna Stewart in 2012, a huge name making her college debut in a decidedly COVID world. No one, beyond scattered family, officials and media dotted Gampel Pavilion on Saturday afternoon.

After UConn had out

classed UMass Lowell, 79-23, Geno Auriemma called it the weirdest game of his life. He pointed out there were more cardboard cutouts of dogs than people. Never seen anything like it, he said.

But Paige Bueckers? This is what he sees every day in practice.

“When you come advertised that you’re better than every flavor of ice cream that was ever invented and you play a game like you played today, there are probably some people out there, who go, ‘Oh, you know, she’s not all that she’s cracked up to be.’

“But I don’t know. Paige was Paige. Paige did all the things that Paige does.”

She scored 17 points on eight of 11 shooting. She had nine rebounds. She had five steals. She had five assists and would have had more if her teammates hadn’t blown some layups.

“For her first college game, I think she played great,” Auriemma said. “You know what I like to say about kids that age? If you look at that game today, I bet you over the next four years that’s the worst game Paige Bueckers will play in her entire career.”

That’s a frightening thought.

For even more than the impressive stat-sheet stuffing numbers was how comfortable Bueckers looked. In her first game since a high school senior last March, the ease that she fit into the UConn offense and how comfortable she made her teammates feel on the court.

“She’s amazing,” Evina Westbrook said. “A-MAYZING. She loves to facilitate the ball and get a lot of people involved and she can create her own shot at any time. So make sure you’re always looking for her. She will get you the ball. She is nothing but a joy to play with.”

Westbrook is right. Late in the game, freshman Piath Gabriel wasn’t looking off a pick-and-roll and what would have been another assist became a Bueckers turnover when the basketball whizzed past her.

Quick hands. Anticipation. The willingness to share the ball. This easy glide to her game. She certainly can get bigger and stronger, but that innate feel for the game, you just don’t invent that.

“It was really fun,” Bueckers said. “We’ve been waiting to play basketball for nine months. No fans, fans, it didn’t matter. Our whole team just wanted to play basketball.

“Before the game I was really nervous. In warmups I was nervous. Before tipoff, I was nervous.”

It turns out she’s nervous before every game she plays. Once the clock starts, the joy hits, the calm comes.

Napheesa Collier announced the starting lineup on the videoboard and the first name out of the former UConn All-American’s mouth was the 5-11 guard from Hopkins, Minn. High fives, low fives, Bueckers greeted each of her starting teammates. The entire team huddled on the court, they broke and finally, finally, finally the UConn women’s season started.

Rumor was the wait was so long that Bueckers was now 29 years old. It was only a rumor. She’s 19. She plays 29.

“Whatever my teammates need me to do,” Bueckers said. “My No. 1 priority for me is to make everyone around me better.

“I’m unselfish. If I have a good shot, I want to get my teammates even better shots. I don’t know if that’s just who I am. But I like to make teammates and everyone else around me do great things.”

Christyn Willliams missed a three-pointer. Bueckers scored on a put back for the first points of her career and the first points of the UConn season 57 seconds into a game that quickly turned into a rout.

“Probably the first week of practice until today there hasn’t been a time here we’d say as a coaching staff that Paige looked really uncomfortable,” Auriemma said. “There may be times when she’s not shooting it great or times when the right pass isn’t always the right pass but there hasn’t been a time, I think that there’s a part of the game she’s not comfortable. It doesn’t really matter what part of the game you want to analyze.

Can she pass the ball? Check. Shoot? Check. Run the offense. Check. Get to the basket? Does she get in the passing lanes on defense? Check.

“In baseball they would call it a five-tool player, right?” Auriemma said. “You look at Paige, she’s a five-tool basketball player.”

“I do get uncomfortable in practice when he’s pushing me,” Bueckers said. “I’m getting out of my comfort zone because I’m going so hard. Doing things I’ve never done before. It makes the games easier. The practices are a lot harder than the games.”

Last play of the first half: Bueckers top of the key with the ball. She cuts one way, twists the other way and scores at the hoop just before the buzzer.

“I had those 10 seconds left,” she said, “so usually we do that high ball screen, and I just kind of needed to score,” she said.

She scored.

With a burgeoning post player, there is a concerted effort to get the ball inside. Or a perimeter sharpshooter can go cold. Bueckers does so many things so well, it seems to take the pressure off her and her team in the quest to improve.

“How many shots did she pass up today that she had that you easily said was a good shot?” Auriemma said. “She does that every day. She will pass up a lot of opportunities for herself to score so she can get somebody else a touch. That’s why all the players love her. That’s why they feel so comfortable around her. They know she’s not out there looking to get 30 every night. She’s out there to make sure that we win.

“That was Diana’s great quality, I thought. If you were on the floor with her you automatically became a better player. Now it’s not fair to compare Paige to D because when D was a freshman we had four-five legends on the team. This is a different scenario Paige is steeping into. But they have similar mentalities on how to play the game and what’s important in a game.”

Bueckers? She said she tries to take parts of Taurasi’s game and parts from Sue Bird.

“They’re two of the best guards to ever play,” she said, “And they went to UConn.”

The hype, of course, does not disappear at UConn. The hype turns into expectations. And expectations can turn into national championships.

“I talked to coach about it the other day,” Bueckers said. “I can’t live up to anybody else’s expectations. My expectations for myself are pretty high, I’d say higher than a lot of other people have for me. I just try and live up to what I know I can do, what my coaches want me to do and what my teammates need me to do.”

After one game, it’s evident Paige Bueckers can do an awful lot.