Paige Bueckers is ready for her college swan song, and her latest turn as a superstar

Bueckers was a bigger name than Caitlin Clark when they started their college careers at the same time. Now Buckers will command the college stage for one more season before joining Clark in the WNBA.

Paige Bueckers (right) takes a shot during last season's Connecticut-Iowa Final Four game.Read moreMorry Gash / AP

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Oct. 24, 2024, 5:00 a.m. ET

NEW YORK — There have, on occasion, been other big names in women’s basketball over the years besides Caitlin Clark.

Some of them were a while ago, such as Cheryl Miller and Dawn Staley. Some were more recent, from Angel Reese to A’ja Wilson to Breanna Stewart.

Another one is so recent that despite being two months older than Clark, she isn’t a pro yet. But hers, too, is a name you might know.

Paige Bueckers started college at Connecticut in the fall of 2021, the same time Clark started at Iowa. They didn’t turn pro at the same time because Bueckers chose to stay an extra year, in part due to losing much of her sophomore season and all of her junior campaign to injuries.

As the women’s basketball calendar turns from the pros to the college scene, Bueckers is primed to be this winter’s biggest star in her last college season. But she and Huskies coach Geno Auriemma know it won’t be her first time in the spotlight — and that really, those injuries are the only reason she ever left it.

Was it so long ago that Bueckers not only split national freshman of the year honors with Clark, but became the first freshman to win the national player of the year award? That she led the sport’s most famous team to the Final Four, routing Clark’s Iowa along the way?

And is it possible that Bueckers’ return to the Final Four last season, where UConn lost by one basket to Iowa, was overshadowed by Clark’s fame and South Carolina’s unbeaten dominance?

Some people will answer yes to all those questions, and warn that Bueckers might offer her own answers.

“Obviously the sense of urgency is high, knowing it’s my last year,” she told a horde gathered before her at Thursday’s Big East basketball media day.

Bueckers spoke more than once of “just trying to embrace it, just trying to have fun,” but she also made clear at one point that “It would mean everything to cap it off with what we came her for.”

That means her first national championship, and UConn’s first since 2016.

“Anybody that’s watched her play will know that when Paige was a freshman, there was nobody better in the country than Paige,” Auriemma said, and it wasn’t his usual Norristown-bred bravado. It was the truth.

“If you look at our Final Four team last year, and how we got there, and that we were two points away from playing in the national championship game,” he said, “that was a testament to just how much that kid can do for a program, a team, and how far she can take you. Obviously not by herself, but putting a player like Paige on your team automatically makes you a national championship contender.”

Bueckers didn’t object to framing this season as a farewell tour. She knows that next month, her future home will be set in the WNBA’s draft lottery, unless whoever wins it — Washington, Dallas, Chicago, or most likely Los Angeles — shockingly picks someone else.

And there will be a heap of farewells, including a visit to Villanova on Jan. 5. UConn’s nonconference schedule has six games against teams in the preseason top 20, a potential seventh in a neutral-site tournament, and a visit to currently-unranked old rival Tennessee.

The slate includes matchups with the three other brightest stars in the women’s college hoops galaxy: at South Jersey native Hannah Hidalgo’s No. 6. Notre Dame (Dec. 12), home vs. JuJu Watkins’ No. 3 Southern Cal (Dec. 21), and at the No. 1 Gamecocks (Feb. 16).

All three games will air on big network TV, on NBC, Fox, and ABC (in that order). Fox has three more, including vs. No. 17 Louisville (Dec. 7) at the Brooklyn home of the WNBA champion Liberty.

Those games are on such big stages because Bueckers is that big of a draw — and not just during basketball games. She’s been a guest of honor at WNBA, National Women’s Soccer League, and NFL games, and at tennis’ U.S. Open she hung out with Coco Gauff and Frances Tiafoe. The cameras have found her at every stop, often wearing gear from a sponsor happy to pay her for it.

“I feel like I’m living in my childhood dream, so I never want to take it for granted,” Bueckers said. “I’m not entitled to anything, I don’t know what each day will bring, so I try to just embrace the moment, have fun with life. It’s my first healthy offseason where I’ve gotten to really enjoy it and do a lot of fun things, and not just be in one place rehabbing. I’ve never looked at it as I’m famous, it’s more like, I’m blessed, so I’m grateful.”

Auriemma sees that, too.

“Her willingness to accept that responsibility and what she has to do for our team — those two things, I think, are going to help her,” he said. “I’m sure there will be times during the season when it becomes overwhelming, either in a positive sense because she’s doing so great, or in a negative sense because she’s struggling. She’s going to get both at some point. But she’s pretty good at managing that.”

As determined as Bueckers is to go out with a long-sought national championship, she’s also determined to enjoy the ride

“I’ve loved my entire time at UConn,” she said. “Can’t imagine it coming to an end, which is why I don’t try to worry about the past, I don’t try to worry about the future, I just try to stay where I am. As of right now, I have a whole season ahead of me, so that’s all I’m really focused on.”

She admitted, though, “I feel like I’m very old. I’m going to be a big girl in the grown up world next year.”

If everything else hadn’t put Bueckers’ moment in perspective, that did real fast.