UConn’s Bueckers casts her ballot for Edwards as top player
UCONN VS. PROVIDENCE Noon, Mohegan Sun Arena (FS1)
— Paige Bueckers finally worked her way back to the mountain on which she stood as a freshman when she was named Big East Conference Player of the Year.
And then earning the award again Thursday after two beleaguered seasons rife with injuries, one of the first things UConn’s Bueckers did was take to social media to endorse teammate and fellow All-America candidate Aaliyah Edwards for the top Big East honor.
“Well, she had my vote. I’m not sure how much that counted for,” Bueckers said with a smile Friday at the Werth Family Champions Center, a day before the top-seeded Huskies meet No. 9 Providence in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament at Mohegan Sun Arena.
“It’s not even a testament to what she’s done this year but her entire four years here at UConn. The way she’s held it down. She’s been our most consistent player throughout the entire four years and the fact she’s always been in the lineup, always been available to play and she’s just done so much for us on both ends of the floor ... I just thought she played extremely great the entire year.”
Bueckers, a redshirt junior who missed all of the 2022-23 season, is averaging 20.7 points per game with 4.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.1 blocks. She’s shooting 54%, 41.2% from 3-point range and has scored 20-or-more points 20 times.
Edwards, a senior who has played in 133 career games at UConn, is averaging 17.9 points and 9.5 rebounds per game.
Both she and Bueckers were members of the high school recruiting Class of 2020 — along with fiery guard Nika Muhl, who announced on social media Friday that this will be her final season at UConn — and arrived in Storrs for the 2020-21 season, helping lead the Huskies to the Final Four. Bueckers was the national player of the year.
This season, Bueckers and Edwards were both unanimous selections to the All-Big East first team.
Bueckers said this Big East honor means a little more than the first one.
“I'm extremely grateful” she said. “I know I said I wish Aaliyah would have gotten it but for people to vote for me and for people to see the hard work I put in to this point means a lot. ... Just to see all the adversity that I've been through, all the storms I've had to claw my way through, it means a lot just to be back in this position playing at a high level.”
She was also named Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year this week.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma joked Friday that Bueckers reminds him of his grandchildren.
“That's why it's so much fun to have her around,” Auriemma said with a laugh. “Somebody says, ‘Don't you want to spend time with your grandkids?' I say, ‘I don't have to spend time with my grandkids, I got Paige.'
“Some words will come out of her mouth ... I say, ‘Man, this is like being at my grandkids' house.' The things that she says, the things that she does, she's very convincing.”
Auriemma went on to say how proud he is of Bueckers' accomplishments. He watched her work her way through this season, not knowing when the “old Paige,” the national player of the year-caliber Paige, was going to reappear, or if she could regain that sense of swagger on the court.
Not only did Bueckers arrive at her destination, she did so with five UConn players missing the season due to injuries — the Huskies start a pair of freshmen in the backcourt — and she did so selflessly, playing a more active role in the post than normal.
“It goes to show you how she's willing to do anything she has to do to help us win, play any position, fill any role,” Auriemma said. “Just on that aspect alone, forget all the points and rebounds, just on that willingness to do that and not complain about it and embrace it makes her deserving of player of the year.
“From November to the present, I think she's had an opportunity to grow back into her game.”