If there’s an overriding lesson from the final 4 years of Paige Bueckers’ school basketball profession, it’s this, she explains: “You by no means know what every day will carry. You by no means know what life is gonna throw at you.”
There was a time when Bueckers didn’t vital suppose that means, 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 all the time imagined as a child. Nonetheless, when she thought in regards to the 4 seasons in entrance of her, there was a way of expectation and progress: 4 years of wholesome play, a number of nationwide titles, a commencement and on the finish of it, a seat on the 2024 WNBA Draft.
Little or no has gone to plan. Bueckers was, the truth is, 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 all the time imagined that the category she entered with alongside Edwards and Mühl could be the category with which she exited. As a substitute, she’s now watching them start their WNBA careers on tv as she returns to varsity offseason exercises, utilizing one of many two obtainable 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 faculty basketball, as a freshman, when she was named nationwide Participant of the 12 months, and final season, when she was once more an All-American. She has superior to 3 Remaining 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 mentioned. “That 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 remaining chapter in Storrs, going via her first (and final) school offseason exercises by which she’s fully wholesome, she’s centered on definitively shifting her mentality whereas recognizing the necessity for flexibility. In any case, that’s the lesson the final 4 years have taught her.
Bueckers’ remaining 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 Could.
However 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. Dialog round Bueckers’ aggressive mentality have been “fixed” since she arrived on campus in 2020, he mentioned. However the Huskies’ latest historical past, an sudden run to the Remaining 4, led by Bueckers, gives all of the proof she must proceed to be a bit extra egocentric on the ground. Earlier than the Massive East match, Auriemma mentioned he advised Bueckers, “Paige, you want it to get 30 each evening. Simply make life simpler on all people else. We don’t have loads of choices. We don’t have loads of decisions. So that is what we obtained. And we are able to’t be milling round with these things.”
In brief: No extra Passive Paige.
By way of 5 NCAA Event video games, Bueckers’ sport fully elevated. After averaging 21.3 factors, 3.7 assists and 4.8 rebounds a sport in the course of the common season, she averaged 25.8 factors, 4.6 assists and eight rebounds a sport, pulling the Huskies to their twenty third Remaining 4.
“I like to attain. I’ve all the time felt like I’m a pass-first participant. I like to get my teammates concerned. I like to ensure all people’s glad,” Bueckers mentioned. “However on the finish of the day, everyone seems to be glad after we win, and I believe we now have a greater probability of profitable after I’m aggressive.”
Added Auriemma: “She’s too good, too caring about what different folks suppose. Don’t get me fallacious, that’s an awesome, nice high quality. I simply don’t know if it’s an awesome high quality for (a) killer famous person.”
Bueckers has realized an excessive amount of over the previous 4 seasons to make too many plans. Every little thing can change right away. She is aware of, as a result of she has been there (a number of instances). However 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, taking part in off two toes, experimenting with tempo.
She’s making an attempt to not stay previously an excessive amount of and in addition not look too far into the longer term. She hasn’t rewatched the Huskies’ remaining sport of the 2024 NCAA Event 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. Identical to the NCAA Event, there shall 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 remaining 12 months at UConn, she’ll ensure that to not really feel that after any sport once more, she mentioned.
“I need to be an unselfish participant, any individual that folks like to play with, however on the similar time, I’m making an attempt to steadiness that with additionally being like, a killer, a scorer, a bucket getter,” she mentioned. “It’s all the time been a battle of me looking for the glad medium, however I believe for probably the most half from right here on out I gotta be extra aggressive first.”
(Picture of Paige Bueckers: Steph Chambers / Getty Pictures)