New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Shining star
UConn’s Bueckers: The biggest standout in the city is also ‘the best teammate’
NEW YORK — As a whirlwind 2020-21 season was coming down the stretch, Paige Bueckers grew increasingly disinterested in what came with it. She’s not built to get a kick out of discussing the same things — herself and her individual success — over and again.
“I think she was tired of the attention before it even came,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said at Big East media day Tuesday. “She’s one of the refreshing kids that doesn’t play for that.
“I know some staffs ... when they recruit a kid, the first hour of their conversation is about the NIL. Well, they have to do that, because their program sucks. So they want to talk about how much money the kid can make if they go to their school. I’ve got a kid that can make more money than any of us sitting here, and she has no interest whatsoever in doing any of those things. So it’s a real breath of fresh air because all she cares about is playing basketball.”
Bueckers was the big star in the big city Tuesday, a day shy of her 20th birthday. There’s no way around her stature. She won every major award she was eligible for as a freshman and she is a major face of a sport.
Bueckers, fully recovered from offseason ankle surgery, did get to put on her UConn uniform and she did get to walk across the court at Madison Square Garden, both things she can appreciate, but she was on hand as the focal point of preseason hype and as the recipient of yet another award: preseason Big East player of the year.
This comes on the heels of a life-changing basketball sprint through the darkness of the pandemic, Bueckers having lit up scoreboards all the way to the Final Four in San Antonio, where the journey ended and where her mind remains. If Bueckers was ever going to reflect glowingly on all that was accomplished over the past year, it was only going to be if the Huskies had won two more games in April.
“The only thing I’m thinking about is that we came up short,” she said. “That’s been motivating me all summer and I think it’s motivating us now. It’s always in the back of our minds and it’s pushing us to go even harder this season. I don’t really look at the accomplishments much. I’m not too much into the individual stuff. That’s all I’m really thinking about right now.”
Bueckers averaged 20 points, 5.8 assists and 4.9 rebounds, and shot 52.4 percent, last season for the Huskies (28-2). She was Big East player of the year and Associated Press national player of the year. She won the Wooden Award and the Naismith Award … and even an ESPY for female college athlete of the year.
And she desperately wants to improve.
“What number is going to get better?” Auriemma said. “What didn’t she do? She shot the ball great. She passed the ball great. She handled the ball. She rebounded. She’s become a really good defender. So what numbers do you need to go up? For her, it’s more subtle. But there’s a big difference in her already, just watching her play, because there’s more experience around her.”
The UConn team is better. Which means its best player has an opportunity to be better.
If Bueckers put enough energy toward securing every dollar available to her now that the NCAA allows athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, Bueckers could probably make as much money as some of the Knicks.
She hasn’t shut out NIL possibilities entirely. She has an agent. She is earning some money. But her priorities haven’t shifted.
“That’s easy for everybody else to say, that I can make this much money, but they’re not the actual people doing it,” Bueckers said. “There’s a lot that goes into it, a lot of photo shoots, a lot of interviews, a lot of things you have to do behind the scenes. I’m not
certainly prepared for all of that. So I’ve been taking it slow. I’m trying not to rush into it too much. And once the basketball season starts, that’s my main and only focus. My agent knows that. Everybody who works with me knows that.”
It’s a fascinating time, with the amplified exposure and advanced opportunities that come with success. So far, Auriemma said, Bueckers is unaffected — and that is part of what makes her such a special player. Bueckers is simply the sophomore point guard with 30 games and 100-plus practices under her belt. She’s refining her game.
“She’s easy to coach,” Auriemma said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a great player that was difficult to coach. Some were more interesting than others in the way they went about their business, but I’ve never had a great player that was hard to coach. For those people out there reading, that’s what made them great players.”
Last October, Auriemma jokingly called Bueckers “Paige Kardashian” and said she’s famous for being famous. Having been named Gatorade national player of the year at Hopkins High in suburban Minneapolis, the hype had started before her arrival at UConn. Few could have predicted the level it would reach so early in her college career.
“Paige hasn’t been any different than she was last year at this time,” Auriemma said. “She’s a little more aggressive, a little more assertive, a little more sure of herself, what her role and her status is and what her relationship is with her teammates. She’s a little more comfortable, as you would expect, than she was last year just showing up for two weeks of (preseason) practice. In terms of being able to be coached any different, no, I haven’t done anything different. I don’t intend on doing anything different.”
Auriemma called Bueckers “competitive, confident and delusional,” and added, “That’s what I love about her.”
Auriemma sees Bueckers outside of the spotlight, when she doesn’t have to choose her words so carefully. She’s playful, sarcastic, kind of delightfully overbearing. Her personality might be as unique as her play. She’ll say she’s the best, at everything, whether she is or not. Just being who she is, and playing the way she plays, could cast a shadow on teammates if it weren’t properly understood.
“Because today it is about your brand,” Auriemma said. “But she’s the best teammate. You wouldn’t want anybody else as your teammate.”
Auriemma said he recently shared a Giannis Antetokounmpo quote with players, something about accolades meaning nothing because all he wants is to improve and he recognizes that all else will come in due time.
“She knows if she just keeps getting better every day,” Auriemma said, “everything she’s ever wanted is going to be there.”
Bueckers wants to win in 2022.
“I think I’m getting better each and every day,” she said. “The challenge for us and for me now is just to win the national championship.”