SEIZING CONTROL
Bueckers had 31 points, no assists and it made Auriemma smile
NO. 10 UCONN AT PROVIDENCE Saturday, 7 p.m. (SNY)
STORRS — Paige Bueckers had 31 points Wednesday night, making 11 baskets that ranged in style from effortless to vicious. She scored inside, outside, on the run, in the post.
And, get this, she finished with no assists. Zero. Zip. None.
“I love it,” coach Geno Auriemma said after the UConn women’s basketball team rode Bueckers’ prolific scoring to another victory, 67-46 over Villanova at Gampel Pavilion. “I love it.”
If there’s been one tug-of-war between Auriemma and his best player in recent years, it’s been him trying to pull Bueckers into an every-night, no-questions-asked, score-first roll, and Bueckers pulling back with all the weight of her love for setting up teammates.
“There’s no mystery, right?” Auriemma said. “I mean, there are people that are going to get double-teamed, and you’re surprised that they’re not. So we know Aaliyah (Edwards) is going to get doubleteamed every night and when she’s not, it’s surprising. We know Paige, on every ball screen, she’s going to get trapped or she’s getting some sort of double-team. And when that happens, and people get open, she’s going find them.
“But she’ll only find them if (the opponent) really, really thinks Paige is trying to score every time she touches the ball, that she’s putting that kind of pressure, mental and actual physical pressure on the other team. And little by little, she’s getting better at that.”
She took over Wednesday, shooting 11for-15 to reach 30 points for the second game in a row. Only one player in UConn history has scored 30-plus in three consecutive games: Bueckers, who did it in February 2021 as a freshman with 32 against St. John’s, 30 against Marquette and 31 against South Carolina.
Bueckers will try to match that accomplishment Saturday at Providence in the regular season finale. Surely, he’ll tally an assist or two, as well.
“Obviously, everybody who’s watched me since I came as a freshman, anybody
watched me in high school, (knows) I love to pass the basketball, I love to create for others,” Bueckers said. “Just trying to find the balance of sometimes, you know, I have to take over the game, create for myself. I feel like the more than I’m aggressive on offense, looking for my shot, that’s when other people get open. So again, it’s just the story of my, sort of, UConn career, trying to find that balance, trying to please Coach in that way, which is kind of impossible, but it always gives you something to work on.”
The only time before Wednesday that Bueckers finished without an assist, in 76 career games, was during UConn’s Elite Eight victory over Baylor in 2021. She played all 40 minutes and had 28 points that night. That was the penultimate game of her freshman season, when she was national player of the year, and the next two were either greatly disrupted or lost entirely to injury.
Bueckers’ body of work this season, when she’s had to play multiple positions with so many other capable scorers and potential starters injured, has been remarkably efficient. In 30 games, she is averaging 30.6 minutes, 20.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists. She is shooting 54 percent from the field, 42.3 percent on 3pointers and 85.8 on free throws.
“You don’t take bad shots,” Auriemma said. “You’re smart enough to know what’s a good shot, what’s a bad shot and what’s a great shot. Paige certainly knows. … And she stays away from ridiculous. That’s why her shooting percentage is so high. You get a kid like that — I’m sure there are other kids in the country that score a lot of points and take a lot of shots, and I would like to see what their shooting percentage is.”
Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who recently surpassed Kelsey Plum as the sport’s all-time scoring leader, leads the nation this season at 32.1 points a game. She is shooting 46.5 percent from the field, 38.8 percent on 3s. Southern Cal’s JuJu Watkins is averaging 28.2 points. She is shooting 41.6 overall, 34.8 percent on 3s.
Bueckers is 45-for-81 from the field (55.6 percent) and averaging 25.2 points over the past five games. She is becoming a more refined player at the right time, probably giving the Huskies a puncher’s chance in March.
UConn, by no fault of its own, is a damaged team. What would be a solid starting lineup on most campuses in America watches every game in street clothes. The Huskies are a two-headed monster, basically, led by Bueckers primarily on the perimeter (but all over the place, really) and Edwards inside.
Never discount the team with the best player on the court. Wednesday was no different than just about any other night in that UConn had the best player on the court. She scores in a variety of ways, posting up defenders, splitting them, pulling up before they reach her, blowing past them, showing her range.
“Well, if Paige was 3 for 15, we would have lost,” Auriemma said. “So I think the pressure that is on her to be efficient makes it even more remarkable that she can pull that off every single night. It’s one thing if you know we’re going to have four players that are going to get 20. But if you know that if you don’t get what she got tonight, there’s a chance we’re going to lose — a good chance — and then you still go out and do it, that’s a hell of a thing. I don’t know how many kids are in her situation in college. … There’s just some kids playing and there’s an awful lot of pressure on them to have to score. They can’t afford to miss shots. And some days it works better than others.”
Bueckers’ career high in points is 34 against Arkansas in the 2021-22 opener.
Her career high in assists is 14 against Butler in February 2021.
She is 555-for-1,039 from the field in her career, 52.9 percent.
But she loves to pass.
“It’s not like the opportunities didn’t present themselves,” Bueckers said. “I felt like we didn’t shoot that great on offense … but then locked in on defense, winning that way. It’s just about us getting good movement, good flowing offense, and I feel like we haven’t shot the ball as well lately as compared to midseason. But now we’re extremely confident and every single one of us, I suppose, on the floor can be a scoring threat.”
The tug-of-war continues, even on nights like Wednesday.
Auriemma drew up a play for Bueckers with halftime set to expire. She passed to Qadence Samuels, who missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
“I remember saying to her, ‘We’re going to set a screen for you, they’re going to have their smallest player guarding you, and what I want you to do is, with the clock running down, throw it to somebody else,’ ” Auriemma said, heavy on the sarcasm. “That would be a hell of a play, right? What other great player in America do you think would do that? None. None. So we’ve still got a long way to go on that.”