Bueckers adds assist records to big season
‘Unique’ winners altering the postseason after 2 Cup races
It was only a matter of time before Paige Bueckers etched her name in the UConn record books. And she didn’t even need to get through the regular season to do it.
The freshman phenom set a pair of program assist records as the No. 1 UConn women’s basketball team took down Butler 97-68 in a Big East Conference game on the road Saturday in the penultimate regular-season game. Bueckers now has the most assists in a season for a UConn freshman (130 and counting) and most assists in a single game, regardless of year (14).
“You see some of the things that Paige does with the ball, and you realize that if somebody told you she was a senior, you wouldn’t be surprised,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “She handles the ball like one and she sees the floor like one.”
Fellow freshman Aaliyah Edwards (24 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks) joined Bueckers (20 points, 14 assists, seven rebounds) in finishing with a double-double.
Bueckers uncharacteristically took 21 shots and made only eight of them — but in true Bueckers fashion, she was more than willing to set up her teammates to score.
She had four assists before taking her first shot of the day (she sank a 3 with just over two minutes remaining in the first quarter). Then she hit EvinaWestbrook for a layup with 2:19 left in the half to surpass the program’s freshman single-season assist mark (123 held by Pam Webber and Renee Montgomery).
Webber did it in 34 games, Montgomery in 37. Bueckers has 130 in 20.
After dishing out more assists at the half (nine) than most people have in one game, Bueckers added five more after the break and late in the fourth established the single-game program record for freshmen (14) , surpassing the 13 by Susie Sturman, Laura Lishness and Montgomery.
“That’s just always who I am,” Bueckers said, “just a pass-first player, try to get everybody else involved.”
“For her to be doing it at this young age in a world that idolizes scoring, that idolizes the three-point shot,” Auriemma said, “to have someone that would rather pass it to you and you score than they score, that’s truly enjoyable to watch. And it’s kind of really old school.”
With Bueckers distributing, the rest of the team thrived. UConn (20-1, 17-0 Big East) had five players in double figures entering the fourth quarter, but no other player was impressive as Edwards. She earned her 24 points on 9-for-10 shooting and accounted for roughly 40 percent of UConn’s scoring in the second half. Her 14 rebounds earned her a second double-double this season.
“If you’re saying every night, ‘We’re going to get a game like this from Aaliyah,’ ” Auriemma said, “then I would say we’re going to be really, really hard to beat.”
“I feel more confident in myself, when I make good plays, if I score or get someone else open,” Edwards said. “It’s good to see that flourish this time of the season. A couple of weeks down the road, we’re going to be matched up against some good teams and have to make every play count, so it’s good that we’re starting that momentum now.”
Aside from Edwards and Bueckers, Westbrook was perfect from the floor in the first half (5-for-5, 2-for-2 on 3s) and finished with 16 points, the most she’s scored since her 19 at Arkansas. Christyn Williams (15) and Olivia Nelson-Ododa (11 points, nine rebounds) also finished in double figures.
It wasn’t a standout game defensively for the Huskies, though. After only putting up 35 points the first time the teams faced off in January, Butler (2-16, 2-15) scored the most points a Big East team has put up against UConn this season, thanks to a 10-for-21 firsthalf clip beyond the arc.
Butler came out hot, starting the game 8 for 14 on 3s despite shooting only 30 percent from the perimeter entering Saturday. Auriemma was unhappy with how UConn allowed Butler to drive into the lane and overhelped on defense, which allowed the Bulldogs to kick out the ball for open threes.
Butler led briefly twice and tied things up in the second quarter, but UConn closed the half on a 14-4 run to enter the break up 53-39.
“I thought the first half was not very encouraging from a defensive standpoint, to give up as many open threes as we did,” Auriemma said. “In the second half, I thought our defense was much better. Our ball movement was much better. But Monday night, obviously our defense is going to have to be a lot better than it was today against Marquette.”
The Huskies managed to get their three-balls going against Butler’s zone, making 7 of 14 in the first half and 12 of 30 for the game. Bueckers (four), Williams and Nika Muhl (three apiece) and Westbrook (two) all hit multiple treys.
UConn tightened things up in the second half, and Butler hit only four 3s and scored 29 points in the final 20 minutes. Edwards hit three straight baskets at the end of the third for Huskies to cross the 20-point threshold for the first time all game, and then she added eight more points in the fourth to help UConn approach the 100-point mark.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — NASCAR’s postseason landscape has been altered after just two Cup Series races.
With Michael McDowell and Christopher Bell winning at Daytona International Speedway, the first in the Daytona 500 and the second on the road course, two playoff spots were locked up by guys who weren’t generally considered locks.
The fallout? Other teams are feeling the pinch in late February - six months before the 16-driver playoff field is set - and with 24 races remaining.
“Probably not for the teams that we all expect to win, but for some of those fringe cars it will,” said Bell’s crew chief, Adam Stevens. “The number of unique winners is really going to change how many cars get in on points, right? It’s pretty obvious.”
The simplest way to look at it: If the series heavyweights perform as expected the rest of the way, there won’t be many playoff spots left for anyone else. It’s a somewhat bleak outlook for several teams already and could force them to adjust their approach beginning Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“Some of that next batch of cars is really needing to be thinking about if they’re swinging for the fence or if they’re racing for points,” Stevens said. “Maybe one more winner that somebody didn’t expect pretty early in the season could really change the complexion.”
Every year since NASCAR’s current playoff system began in 2014, at least three postseason berths have been awarded to drivers based on points. The past three years, as Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott have won a bigger share of races, more drivers have made the playoffs on points.
But Bell and McDowell already grabbed two of the spots, something many would have considered an unlikely possibility entering the year.
“The dynamic has changed dramatically right now,” 2012 Cup champion Brad Keselowski said. “We’re very early in the season, and it’s now turned into a points race for those last few spots. Hopefully it doesn’t matter for us.
“But if you don’t win, you’re in a lot of trouble right now because it’s not looking like you’re going to be able to get in the playoffs right now without a win.”
The Daytona 500 has a tendency to be a crapshoot, often delivering an odd top-10 and occasionally ending up with a long-shot winner like McDowell. He had been winless in 357 Cup starts before his breakthrough.
Although Bell drives for powerhouse Joe Gibbs Racing, he was a rookie for that top team and in his second full season in the Cup series.
“Two of the tracks we’ve went to are definitely tracks that create opportunities for guys that you wouldn’t necessarily just give them a spot or think that they’re going to point themselves in,” said Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Dillon, who has made the playoffs four times in the last five years. “But I think as the season goes on, there will be some opportunities for points.
“It always comes down to one or two positions, I feel like, when it comes to points.”
Hamlin’s home: No one in the field has been better at Homestead than Hamlin. The Joe Gibbs Racing star has three wins (2009, ‘13, ‘20) at the track and 11 top-10 finishes in 16 starts. He led 137 of 267 laps last June en route to his latest victory.
He’s tied with Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle for the most Cup wins at the 1 ½-mile venue. Those intermediate tracks are the ones Hamlin and Harvick mostly dominated last year.
“We are about to get into a chunk of the season where you are going to start to see some of your normal winners in the bracket,” Hamlin said.
3 weeks, 3 tracks: NASCAR’s much-hyped season, one that included significant schedule changes, is being showcased in its first three weeks. The Cup Series opened on a superspeedway, then raced on a road course, and now heads to an intermediate track.
Manchester City won its 20th straight game in all competitions and opened up a 13-point lead in the Premier League by beating West Ham 2-1 thanks to goals from center backs Ruben Dias and John Stones on Saturday. Playing less than 72 hours after a Champions League match in Budapest, City produced one of its sloppiest displays in recent months but emerged with its winning run intact as Stones swept in the decisive goal in the 68th minute from Riyad Mahrez’s pass. Dias, Stones’ partner in central defense, put City in front off a header from a deep left-footed cross by Kevin De Bruyne in the 30th only for Pep Guardiola’s team to concede its first home goal in 2½ months when Michail Antonio equalized just before halftime. “Some days it doesn’t come off for the forwards, and today me and Ruben chipped in,” Stones said. “That’s part of us being such a good team and the collective. In big games or important games, everyone chips in, maybe sometimes the person you don’t expect.” It was City’s 14th win in a row in the league — only the sixth time that has been achieved in English top-flight history. Three of those have been attained by City under Guardiola since his arrival in 2016.