There was a time when Bueckers didn’t essential assume that approach, when she assumed her plans would come to go. Like when she arrived in Storrs, Conn., within the fall of 2020. She knew then that her freshman season — already outlined with the COVID-19 protocols of testing, masks and isolation — wouldn’t look precisely the best way she at all times imagined as a child. Still, when she thought concerning the 4 seasons in entrance of her, there was a way of expectation and progress: Four years of wholesome play, just a few nationwide titles, a commencement and on the finish of it, a seat on the 2024 WNBA Draft.
Very little has gone to plan. Bueckers was, in actual fact, on the 2024 WNBA Draft, however she was there supporting her teammates Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Mühl being drafted. She described the evening as “surreal,” having at all times imagined that the category she entered with alongside Edwards and Mühl could be the category with which she exited. Instead, she’s now watching them start their WNBA careers on tv as she returns to school offseason exercises, utilizing one of many two accessible redshirt years.
Paige Bueckers supporting her teammates on the #WNBADraft pic.twitter.com/iQnI3sjNht
— The Athletic WBB (@TheAthleticWBB) April 16, 2024
Bueckers has performed solely two wholesome seasons of school basketball, as a freshman, when she was named nationwide Player of the Year, and final season, when she was once more an All-American. She has superior to 3 Final Fours in 4 years however by no means gained a title.
She has readjusted her expectations, imagining her title known as within the 2025 WNBA Draft. She plans to make the 2024-25 season her final at UConn, she advised The Athletic.
“There’s a a lot bigger sense of urgency,” Bueckers stated. “This is my final 12 months to get what I got here right here for, which is a nationwide championship. … No extra ‘Passive Paige.’”
As Bueckers enters her ultimate chapter in Storrs, going by way of her first (and final) school offseason exercises during which she’s fully wholesome, she’s centered on definitively shifting her mentality whereas recognizing the necessity for flexibility. After all, that’s the lesson the final 4 years have taught her.
Bueckers’ ultimate shot at a nationwide title will include some changes. Edwards and Mühl are gone. The three returning upperclassmen — Azzi Fudd, Aubrey Griffin and Caroline Ducharme — are coming off accidents. Kaitlyn Chen, a Princeton switch, is settling into this system after arriving on campus in late May.
But that turnover in roster — nothing new to Bueckers — makes her psychological shift that rather more vital as she prepares to shoulder a lot extra.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma can level to March to remind Bueckers of her focus. Conversation round Bueckers’ aggressive mentality have been “fixed” since she arrived on campus in 2020, he stated. But the Huskies’ current historical past, an surprising run to the Final Four, led by Bueckers, offers all of the proof she must proceed to be a bit extra egocentric on the ground. Before the Big East match, Auriemma stated he advised Bueckers, “Paige, you want it to get 30 each evening. Just make life simpler on everyone else. We don’t have quite a lot of choices. We don’t have quite a lot of decisions. So that is what we bought. And we will’t be milling round with these items.”
In brief: No extra Passive Paige.
Through 5 NCAA Tournament video games, Bueckers’ sport fully elevated. After averaging 21.3 factors, 3.7 assists and 4.8 rebounds a sport through the common season, she averaged 25.8 factors, 4.6 assists and eight rebounds a sport, pulling the Huskies to their twenty third Final Four.
“I like to attain. I’ve at all times felt like I’m a pass-first participant. I like to get my teammates concerned. I like to ensure everyone’s glad,” Bueckers stated. “But on the finish of the day, everyone seems to be glad once we win, and I feel we’ve got a greater probability of successful after I’m aggressive.”
Added Auriemma: “She’s too good, too caring about what different individuals assume. Don’t get me unsuitable, that’s a fantastic, nice high quality. I simply don’t know if it’s a fantastic high quality for (a) killer celebrity.”
Bueckers has discovered an excessive amount of over the previous 4 seasons to make too many plans. Everything can change immediately. She is aware of, as a result of she has been there (a number of occasions). But with a heightened sense of urgency, she’s approaching this offseason in another way. She desires to come back in as a greater scorer, passer and rebounder. Ask her the place her sport can enhance, and there’s no scarcity of choices that come to Bueckers’ thoughts: her vary, 3-point taking pictures, off-the-dribble taking pictures, one-on-one strikes, ballhandling, enjoying off two ft, experimenting with tempo.
She’s attempting to not dwell up to now an excessive amount of and likewise not look too far into the long run. She hasn’t rewatched the Huskies’ ultimate sport of the 2024 NCAA Tournament but — a loss to Iowa — however she’ll get there. She is aware of she has to observe it to fully flip the web page from final season. Just just like the NCAA Tournament, there will likely be classes to glean from these 40 minutes, however Bueckers nonetheless wonders if she had been only a bit extra aggressive, possibly the sport would’ve turned out in another way. With one ultimate 12 months at UConn, she’ll be sure to not really feel that after any sport once more, she stated.
“I need to be an unselfish participant, anyone that individuals like to play with, however on the similar time, I’m attempting to steadiness that with additionally being like, a killer, a scorer, a bucket getter,” she stated. “It’s at all times been a battle of me looking for the glad medium, however I feel for essentially the most half from right here on out I gotta be extra aggressive first.”
(Photo of Paige Bueckers: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
