The meaning of a journey consists of the friends that we make along the way, the memories that we share and the accomplishments we achieve. There might be tough times that come, but tough people last longer than those hard times. Adversity is what each and every one of us need to have in order to endure the challenges in our lives and sometimes we need role models along the way to help us. One of the role models that young girls aspiring to be professional athletes someday can look towards is a basketball player who has been through a load of injuries that threatened to derail her career, but with the right amount of faith in herself and some good physical rehab has rebounded time and time again to be available at the right time for her team and she accomplished the ultimate achievement that had eluded her in her final season playing at the collegiate level. Her name is Paige Bueckers, otherwise known as Paige Buckets, and her amazing career as the star player at the University of Connecticut just concluded in the most perfect fashion. The perfect coronation occurred for Bueckers, who was just selected with the number one overall pick in the WNBA Draft by the Dallas Wings, and she’ll look to bring glory to that franchise that hasn’t had it in a very long time when they were located in a different city and went by a different name.

Paige Bueckers’ career has been anything but a fairytale story, at least since her senior year in high school when she was robbed of having the perfect ending due to the COVID-19 pandemic denying her a chance to gain another state title for her Hopkins(Minn.) High School program. She led the Royals to a state title in Minnesota girls basketball the year beforehand and was starting to gain a massive social media following due to her dazzling highlights and her dribbling making opposing defenders look like fools. Paige already knew where she was going after her high school time ended, the only doubts were whether the season could occur in a fan-less environment with safety protocols followed with testing for the coronavirus. Those doubts would eventually subside and Bueckers would play her Freshman year in mostly fan-less environments, including for home games at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn. With teammates who were upperclassmen that had failed to lead UConn to a national championship, Paige looked to accomplish that feat in her first year in the Basketball Capital of the World.

She was lucky to have Geno Auriemma as her head coach for five seasons, with a plethora of great women’s basketball stars being molded in the Nutmeg State’s flagship university and being spread out to the nascent Women’s National Basketball Association, where Paige was restricted from going into until she had played a specific amount of years or reached the age of 21 or 22. Being an older member from her high school class of 2020(she was born in October 2001), Bueckers had more than enough time to develop her game in college and play against some of the toughest competition in the nation. The UConn Huskies had returned to the Big East, where they had left for the American Athletic Association for the past several years. After dominating the AAC, UConn’s women’s basketball team was looking to regain the dominance that it had held in the Big East for the past couple of decades under the leadership of Geno and his assistant coaches. Paige Bueckers would be a big part of that new era to come in the Big East Conference.

In her Freshman season, Bueckers averaged 20 points, 5.7 assists, and nearly five rebounds per game. She played almost every minute in every game, and also was very good defensively in averaging 2.3 steals. She started in 28 games in the limited schedule for UConn and shot 52.4% from the field with a 46.4% tally from behind the 3-point line. Along with a 87% free-throw shooting tally, Paige Bueckers was one of the most efficient players in NCAA women’s college basketball in her first year. She was definitely built different. Along with teammates such as fellow guards Christyn Williams, Evina Westbrook and Nika Muhl and forwards Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Aaliyah Edwards, Bueckers was on a very talented team. The only regular season loss the Huskies suffered in the 2020-21 regular season was against the Arkansas Razorbacks on the road, with impressive non-conference wins against southern rivals Tennessee and South Carolina. UConn dominated their conference opponents and won the Big East Tournament championship, held that year at an empty Madison Square Garden, against the Marquette Golden Eagles. Paige was named the Big East Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player and she also won the Conference Player of the Year Award. There were more awards on the way for the powerful point guard wearing number 5 on her jersey.

As for her first NCAA tournament appearance, UConn was the number one seed in a bracket filled with a couple of tough teams that they faced and defeated. The entire tournament was held in the major central Texas cities of San Antonio, Austin and San Angelo due to Covid restrictions. Some fans were able to attend, but not as many as a normal tournament would garner. The Huskies won their regional championship by defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes and Baylor Bears in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8. But in the Final Four, they were defeated by the Arizona Wildcats, who would go on to lose the national title game to a fellow PAC-12 opponent in the Stanford Cardinal. Paige had been defeated, but she was far from done. Her freshman season garnered her with awards such as national player of the year honors from the Associated Press and the John Wooden Award. Bueckers also won the Women’s Player of the Year award at the ESPYS held in New York and she used that award show to lift up the platform of African-American women basketball players, who make up a majority of the collegiate rosters throughout the United States at the Division I level. Paige was going to come back stronger than ever in her Sophomore season and she looked to get the Huskies back to the Final Four in order to finish the deal this time around.

But the 2021-22 season would be anything but a smooth season for Paige Madison Bueckers, who would be welcoming one of her good basketball buddies onto the team. That someone was Azzi Fudd, who is a shooting star with her amazing three-point shooting abilities. Being around the same height as Paige, Azzi had gone through injury hell with a torn ACL at a tournament for high school players in Colorado in the spring of 2019 and she had just recovered from being injured before Covid shut down the world. Growing up in Arlington, Va, Azzi’s mother had played basketball and had her career ended due to injury woes. Paige had actually come to live in Virginia at the Fudd house during Covid’s early days in order to train with Azzi and prepare for her first season at UConn. Azzi Fudd would play her senior year of high school under many restrictions regarding health and safety during the pandemic, but she kept herself physically healthy entering her first year at UConn. Besides Fudd, incoming new players for the Huskies included forward Caroline Ducharme and transfer 6-5 forward Dorka Juhasz. Unfortunately, in her second season, Paige suffered a horrifying injury to her tibia in a home game against Notre Dame on Dec. 5, 2021. She literally had to be carried off the court and tended to by athletic trainers. The Huskies would suffer a few big losses without Bueckers, who looked to recover and return as soon as she could to the floor. Paige eventually returned nearly three months after suffering the injury and she returned to a team that had five losses on its record. Bueckers had to play some games off the bench before returning to the starting lineup, with Coach Auriemma looking to limit her minutes after she was hyper-obsessed with playing every single minute of a game. Paige had to have more faith in her teammates to execute well without her on the floor and she had learned a valuable lesson when it came to being available to play.

The Huskies won the Big East Conference tournament again, but oddly enough Paige was not the tournament’s most outstanding player. That honor went to Maddie Siegrist of Villanova instead. Returning to the NCAA tournament as a 2 seed this time, the Huskies had a favorable draw in terms of playing their regional home games in their home state. Their first two games at Gampel Pavilion were victories over Mercer and the University of Central Florida(a rather close result of 52-47). The regional semifinals and final occurred in Bridgeport, Conn, not that far away from the inland campus of UConn. A good win against the Indiana Hoosiers in the Sweet 16 propelled the Huskies into a tough Elite 8 matchup with the top-seed in the region, North Carolina State. The game against NC State for the right to go back to the Final Four was one of the craziest games in Paige Bueckers’ college career(and entire basketball life for that matter). After leading 34-28 at halftime, UConn engaged in a tight second half against the Wolfpack and the game eventually had to go to overtime with the score tied at 61. Paige did all she could to put away NC State, but the game went into a second overtime period with the score tied at 77 a piece. Eventually, the Huskies held off their fellow canine opponents and won the game 91-87 in double OT. Paige had achieved another regional title and was going to the Final Four yet again, keeping UConn’s 15-year streak of making an appearance in the Final Four alive. And she was coming home for this National semifinals and championship appearance.

The 2022 Women’s Final Four was held in Minneapolis, Minn., at the Target Center, just miles away from where Bueckers grew up and began her basketball journey. Now, Paige was looking for a full-circle moment with a national championship that had been a few years in the making. Her father, Bob Bueckers, and her younger siblings were present along with her birth mother, Amy Dettbarn. Paige would lead UConn to an amazing victory in the national semifinal matchup against the defending-champion Stanford Cardinal, winning 63-58. Bueckers had 14 points along with five assists, with her having plenty of help from her teammates. Now UConn was set to play in the national championship game against South Carolina, which was looking for its second national title in program history under Dawn Staley. The Gamecocks had only lost one game in the 2021-22 season and that one loss was in OT against Missouri. The national title game on April 3, 2022 was dominated by South Carolina shooting guard Destanni Henderson, who had 26 points to propel the Gamecocks to the title. Paige had 14 points just like in the semifinal game, but it was not enough as UConn was held to 49 points and they allowed 64 points to the opposing team. A national title game defeat, the first in the UConn women’s basketball program’s storied history. Paige was devastated that she could not win the championship in front of her home crowd, especially after coming back from a serious injury. This would be the end of the line for some of the upperclassmen for the Husky players who had never won a national title. Christyn Williams, Evina Westbrook, and Olivia Nelson-Ododa were out of eligibility and were going to the pros. Paige was truly the alpha dog now, but another tragic and unseen injury would derail her career four months after that national title defeat.

On the afternoon of Aug. 1, 2022, Paige Bueckers’ life changed forever when she torn her ACL while playing pickup basketball. The injury news was devastating for UConn, especially after she had endured a lower extremity woe the year before. Paige was done for the season and she would have to watch from the sidelines as her teammates tried to carry the flag without her. Not only was her torn ACL devastating from a sport perspective, but also a brand perspective. Bueckers was one of the first athletes to take full advantage of something that had been denied to student-athletes for generations, which was profiting off of their name, image and likeness(NIL). After a Supreme Court ruling in 2021 that favored student-athletes over the NCAA, Paige immediately started to cash in on her brand name as she already had a massive social media following on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. She partnered with popular companies selling different products such as Gatorade, CashApp, Chegg Inc, and other major brands. Paige recently signed an endorsement deal with Nike and has been featured in commercials with the iconic swoosh in the most recent March Madness marketing campaign. Paige also signed a deal with Madison Reed, a hairstyle company, and she even dyed her blonde hair a different color. Overall, Bueckers has been putting up buckets on the floor and making some big bucks off the floor. Racking up a few million dollars during her collegiate career, Paige has used some of the money towards social justice causes, specifically towards minority communities who need financial assistance. She created a foundation with her name in it in 2022 in her hometown area that looks to create more opportunities for overlooked communities in sports, economics and sufficient access to food and water. So, Paige Buckets is more than just a trademark name; it’s a platform for helping out people who need it the most in our modernized society with many different challenges in it.

The road back onto the floor for Paige would not be easy. She had to undergo rehab after her surgery and had to do different exercises in order to be sure that an injury like the ones that she had suffered in her Sophomore year would never happen again. She had to commit to water training in the pool for her limbs and also had to do yoga and Pilates in order to keep her body flexible. Without Bueckers as their star player, UConn would not fare as well with Azzi Fudd, Nika Muhl and Aaliyah Edwards looking to lift the Huskies through the regular season. Five losses occurred for them in the regular season, including an embarrassing defeat on their home floor to St. John’s. Through it all, Paige had to sit on the sidelines, where she became almost like a player-coach in the 2022-23 season. There were moments when she showed her emotions in her inability to be available for her sisters when they needed her the most. Specifically in a road game against the Tennessee Lady Volunteers, Paige let out a few tears in emotion of not being able to play. The Huskies won that night without her in Knoxville and they would go on to win the Big East regular season title and the conference tournament as well. But in the NCAA Tournament, they did not go as far as they had wanted to, as after a couple of first round home wins, UConn fell in the Sweet 16 to Ohio State 73-61 in a game oddly enough played in Seattle, Wash. The Huskies’ season was over at an earlier point than it had been for many years. UConn had to look towards the future and pray that Paige Bueckers made a solid recovery from her ACL injury that sidelined her for the entire year of competition.

Thankfully, Paige returned and in her first game back, she scored 8 points with 7 rebounds and four assists against the Dayton Flyers on Nov. 8, 2023 in a game at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn. A blowout win for the Huskies, who had a few new faces to complement their returned star guard. Redshirt freshman forward Ice Brady and freshman guards KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade were new additions to the team and Paige benefitted greatly from their ability to produce. Those three players had to make plenty of starts however, as UConn’s roster would be ravaged by injuries that year. Paige would have to play without her best bud in Azzi Fudd for most of the season due to an ACL tear that Azzi suffered. Other injuries occurred to key players such as forwards Aubrey Griffin and Caroline Ducharme and the Huskies roster was so decimated to the point where they could barely field an active roster of seven scholarship players minimum. But they kept pushing through, in spite of a few early-season losses to top-tier teams such as NC State, UCLA and Texas. The Huskies continued dominating the Big East and they only suffered non-conference setbacks against Notre Dame and their archrival South Carolina Gamecocks. Paige returned to the top of her game in her redshirt junior season, averaging a career-high 21.9 points per game and having 5 rebounds per contest and nearly having four assists per game as well. She was asserting herself defensively, blocking shots and stealing balls with fantastic precision. The Huskies won the Big East yet again and Bueckers reclaimed her mantles as conference player of the year and the Conference Tournament’s most outstanding player. The Huskies were back in the Big Dance and more dangerous than ever in spite of their lack of bodies available for playing.

UConn won their two first-round games at Gampel Pavilion against Jackson State and Syracuse, then won a gritty Sweet 16 game over Duke 53-45. The regional semifinals in UConn’s bracket occurred in Portland, Ore., where the top-seed in the bracket wasn’t the Huskies, but it was instead the University of Southern California(USC of the west). The Trojans had a rising freshman star in Judea “JuJu” Watkins, who was a favorite to be national player of the year just like Paige was in her freshman season. The Huskies were down to seven or eight rotation players at the most in this tournament run, so they needed all the scoring from their starters that they could get. The Elite 8 game on April 1, 2024 was no joke as it was a duel between Paige and JuJu. Bueckers had 28 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in the game; she was one of only two Huskies with more than 10 points as Aaliyah Edwards had a solid performance with 24 points and 6 rebounds. Along with a combined 16 points from Nika Muhl and Ice Brady, the Huskies had a combined 68 points from four players. They had 12 points from the other three players who participated in the game while USC had 29 points from Watkins, who had an additional 10 rebounds to have a double-double just like Paige. JuJu had two of her teammates crack double-figures, but the Trojans were held in check enough to be kept at arm’s length by UConn, who won the regional final to return to the Final Four. The Huskies’ opponent in their national semifinal matchup in the 2024 Final Four in Cleveland, Ohio would be the Iowa Hawkeyes, who had their big superstar player that had set the all-time career scoring record for all players in NCAA Division I basketball. Caitlin Clark was on a tear and a mission to bring a national championship to her home-state Hawkeyes, who were defeated in the national title game the year before against the LSU Tigers. The 3-seeded Huskies were looking to win over Iowa in order to get into a national title game rematch against South Carolina, who defeated NC State in the first Final Four game on Fri. April 5, 2024. The Huskies got off to a good start in the game, holding a 19-14 lead after the first quarter. They even held a 12-point lead over Iowa after Paige made a 3-pointer with over five minutes left in the first half, but Iowa got to within six points by halftime. Caitlin Clark was held in check in the first half, but she started to catch her groove in the second half after she made a three-pointer that she got fouled on. That four-point play was huge as the Hawkeyes retook the lead in the latter parts of the third quarter, which had the score all tied at 51 heading into the fourth quarter. Iowa would take a nine-point lead with 5:42 remaining in regulation, but the Huskies made one last push as Paige made another big three-pointer to get them within four points. They got to within one point of the Hawkeyes with a three-pointer by Muhl and forced a turnover that had them gain possession. Geno Auriemma called timeout after they got possession. This was the final chance for UConn to win the game and get back to the national title game in the 2023-24 season. The final shot was supposed to go to Paige, but the shot would not count as a pass from Muhl to Bueckers would be negated due to an offensive foul by Edwards. The game would end ironically with a 71-69 defeat after a Caitlin Clark missed free-throw resulted in an offensive rebound by the Hawkeyes and a jump ball that awarded possession to them. The Huskies’ battered and bruised run had come to an end. It would be the end of the line for a couple of Paige’s teammates that came in with her in the same freshman class in Nika Muhl and Aaliyah Edwards, but it was not the end of the story of Paige Bueckers at the University of Connecticut. She announced at a game earlier in the season in Storrs “Unfortunately, this will NOT be my final season playing here”. Paige Madison Bueckers would have one last chance to bring a title to the Basketball Capital of the World and she would have a couple of reinforcements coming her way onto the team in her senior season.

One of those players was obviously Azzi Fudd, who was coming off the injury woes that had sidelined her for most of the past couple of seasons. But a new freshman star was coming in to UConn that could easily be the next big star that Paige could pass the torch off to assuming this would be her last year. That player was a basketball born-and-bred girl whose parents both played basketball professionally. She is from North Carolina, a state rich in basketball history and culture. Her name is Sarah Strong, who announced her commitment to UConn after they were defeated against Iowa. Sarah was looking to be the next big-name player at UConn and she would be a big cornerstone piece of the revival of the Huskies. Another reinforcement would be another player making her collegiate debut after tearing her ACL while competing on her country’s U18 national team. Jana El Alfy, a forward from Egypt, had to sit out the 2023-24 season and she had to redshirt her freshman year. Having her would be a plus as well for the Huskies, whose schedule to start out the season would not be as challenging as it was the year before. Along with graduate transfer guard Kaitlyn Chen from Princeton and freshman forward Morgen Cheli, the Huskies roster was more powerful than it had been a year beforehand. With no more Caitlin Clark in collegiate women’s basketball, Paige sought to cash in and be one of the big star faces to take on the mantle of the most popular ladies baller in the land.

After a healthy summer attending sporting events and preparing herself physically and mentally for her last dance season, Paige Bueckers stepped onto the floor as a 23-year old women’s basketball player looking to go out on top at UConn. The Huskies won big games early on against North Carolina, Louisville and Iowa State, but they suffered losses to elite opponents with National Player of the Year candidates. Notre Dame handed UConn their first defeat of the season with Hannah Hidalgo, the sophomore guard who put down 29 points and 8 assists on her home floor in South Bend, Ind. Paige scored 25 points in that game, but it was not enough to lead her team to victory. Later in that December, the Huskies hosted the USC Trojans in an Elite 8 rematch where JuJu Watkins led the Trojans to a big victory, with 25 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds. Paige scored 22 points, the same total scored by Sarah Strong, but the Huskies were held in check along with Azzi Fudd being on a minutes restriction due to her coming back from an early-season knee injury. The Huskies tried to come back and did take the lead for a while, but they would lose 72-70 at the XL Center in Hartford. They would rebound from that loss with a massive winning streak in their conference schedule, where they would go undefeated once again. A loss against the Tennessee Lady Vols in Knoxville on Feb. 6 would have many people doubting whether the Huskies could win enough big games. Those doubts would be silenced when this UConn squad, which had minor injury woes and had lost Morgen Cheli to a season-ending leg injury, went into hostile territory against the South Carolina Gamecocks, who they defeated in a must-win game 87-58. A powerful first half was fueled by a powerful shooting afternoon by Azzi Fudd, who had the game of her life with 28 points and a load of made three-pointers. Sarah Strong had a big double-double and Paige had 12 points and 10 assists for her part. This victory would be a watershed moment in the seasons of both these teams, who were on a collision course to face off against each other in a rematch a few years in the making.

The Huskies would continue to dominate their opposition, including on Senior Day on Mar. 2, 2025 at Gampel Pavilion. Paige would walk out with her family in a postgame ceremony along with fellow seniors Aubrey Griffin, Kaitlyn Chen and Azzi Fudd(who announced that she would be returning for one more season at UConn in spite of already graduating). Paige gave a heartfelt speech to the thousands of fans and many reports had come out that she was going to declare for the 2025 WNBA draft. So, this was her final regular season home game in her college career, but it would not be the end of her time playing at Gampel. One last Big East Tournament occurred for Paige Buckets and she dominated each of the three games that the Huskies played in, being the leading scorer in every one of those games and winning one last Big East Tournament championship. Paige would be the Most Outstanding Player for a third time, making her the first player to do that in the Big East Women’s Basketball tournament. Six days later, the Huskies found out which bracket they would be in. Unsurprisingly, they were a 2-seed and they would be in the same bracket as the USC Trojans, who were the 1-seed in a regional semifinals and final that was taking place in Spokane, Wash.

The Huskies won the first two games of their NCAA tournament run against Arkansas State and South Dakota State, the latter of which was Paige Bueckers’ final home game on Connecticut soil. After a quiet first-round game, Paige Buckets went off and scored 34 points and had the two teammates of the Big 3 tandem score a combined 32 points alongside her. After the game was over, Bueckers saw her name unraveled on the Huskies of Honor wall in the arena, having her number five above her name and the time that she played as a UConn women’s basketball player. Paige gave a heartfelt speech afterwards, thanking her teammates, coaches and all the fans that had supported her through her entire time in Storrs. The job was not done yet, as the Huskies had to go west to play in the regional semifinals against Oklahoma. The game against the Sooners would not be easy early on and the Huskies needed PB5 to take over, in which she did in the fourth quarter after a strong third quarter. Paige scored 19 straight points on her own and reached a career-high mark of 40 points in the process of a successful 82-59 victory over Oklahoma. The Huskies were going to the Elite 8, but they would be facing a USC Trojans team without their biggest star. JuJu Watkins had suffered a horrific ACL injury to her knee in a second round game, ending her season as she had to be carried off the court. Paige could relate to that sort of pain and she lamented the injury to her fellow star player in not having one last chance to face off against JuJu in college. The rematch of the December game that the Trojans won would still be tight, but not as tight as it could have been. The Huskies led by 14 points at the half, but Southern Cal came storming back to make it a 5-point margin by the end of the third quarter. But Paige and her teammates closed out the game in the fourth quarter, with a few big threes by her and Azzi Fudd. The game ended with a 78-64 tally in favor of UConn, which was going back to the Final Four yet again. Paige had 31 points, six assists and four made three-pointers to lift her team. An incredible three-game stretch at the end of March where she scored a combined 105 points. Along with contributions from Sarah Strong and Fudd, Paige Buckets was at a higher level than ever before as she looked to finally complete her journey with a hard-earned title five years in the making.

The Final Four this year was held in Tampa, Fla., at Amalie Arena and the Huskies would be playing another one-seed who won their regional that was also held in Spokane. The UCLA Bruins had made it to their first Final Four in program history, even though they have a championship banner from 1978 back when women’s basketball was in its collegiate infancy. Under Cori Close at head coach, the Bruins had worked hard to make a run to a title with the gigantic, 6 foot-7 inch center Lauren Betts at the core of their team’s roster. Along with good shooters, UCLA was a very talented team. But they would be running into a defensive and offensive juggernaut in UConn and the game would be a dominant laugher. The Huskies had a powerful first half with a 20-point lead at halftime, then they put the game away in the fourth quarter. Paige did not have to do much as her fellow Big 3 counterparts in Strong and Fudd led the way with a combined 42 points, whereas Bueckers added on 16 points of her own to make it a 58-point trio tandem that outscored the entire point-tally from UCLA. The Huskies won 85-51 and they would be returning to the national championship game, which was fittingly enough against… South Carolina. The Gamecocks were not the same team from previous years, having to win close games in their regional semifinal and final games just to get to the Final Four. South Carolina was not that powerful of a 1-seed, but they made quick work of the Texas Longhorns to make it back to the national title game. The Gamecocks were looking to repeat with a combined group of younger and experienced players. The Gamecocks had defeated and denied Paige Bueckers of a national championship three years ago, but they had mostly been depleted of the players who played in that game. This was a new South Carolina team with fewer stars and less experience. This was Paige Bueckers’ moment to coronate herself as a championship queen and she would not be denied at all.

The Huskies had a good start to the game, keeping the Gamecocks at arm’s length. When South Carolina made a push, UConn just kept pulling the lead further into their favor. A 10-point lead at halftime would balloon with a huge, 26-point third quarter, with 24 of those points scored by the Big 3 of Bueckers, Strong and Fudd. A 20-point lead had been established and the fourth quarter was simply a final countdown of Paige’s career. Bueckers scored an and-1 layup and assisted on a dagger three-pointer made by Strong, who was the game’s shared leading scorer with 24 points along with Azzi Fudd. There was nothing else for Paige Bueckers to do than check out one last time and give her coaches and basketball sisters some farewell hugs. Paige checked out and hugged her head coach, Geno Auriemma, who told her “I love you”. Paige hugged all her teammates on the bench after hugging all of the assistant head coaches. The last person she hugged was Azzi Fudd as the two of them accomplished what they had set out many years beforehand to do: win a national title at UConn. The game concluded and the Huskies celebrated on the floor, winning their 12th national championship to set a new Division I program record in finally passing the UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team. Paige would have her post-game interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe and she was so happy to finally finish what she had started. Paige simply said that she wouldn’t trade this experience “for the world”. That statement could not be more true after all she had faced. Injuries, defeats to talented teams on the biggest stage and departures of her fellow teammates who were unable to win the big one. She had finally done it with a younger group of Huskies and with her own wits and determination. Azzi Fudd won the Final Four Most Outstanding Player award and deservingly so. She had stepped up when Paige wasn’t having the best games, the same story for herself and Sarah Strong, who both had 24 points each to lead the team. Paige truly let the spotlight shine on her Black teammates and did not have it all to herself, but she did have 17 points and six rebounds in her final game. Paige got to cut off a piece of the championship net, which she wore around her chest and her national championship shirt postgame. This was the perfect ending to the collegiate chapter of Paige Bueckers’ career and a good send-off that would garner her with the ultimate reward of being the number one overall pick in the WNBA Draft just a short eight days later.

At the Hudson Yards in Manhattan, Paige would show out in wearing a sparkling suit on the Orange Carpet, then before the draft began she changed into another sparkling outfit. Along with her mother and father, Paige sat along with her basketball sister in Azzi Fudd at a table near to where her former head coach in Geno Auriemma sat as they awaited the obvious result that everyone and their mother knew was going to happen. Paige Bueckers was selected by the Dallas Wings as the number one overall pick of the 2025 WNBA Draft. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert made this announcement to nobody’s surprise and everyone’s delight as Paige walked up to the stage to bear the Dallas Wings jersey with her name on the back of it. Ever since they won the draft lottery, the Wings were looking forward to this moment. They already have one veteran star guard in Arike Ogunbuwale, who broke UConn fans’ hearts with a buzzer-beater in the Final Four for her Notre Dame Fighting Irish team that won the national title in 2018, and had added some pieces around her. But Arike knew that Paige Buckets was coming to the Big D and Wings general manager Curt Miller made that come true. Paige was now a first overall pick, joining her with plenty of famous UConn players that have worn that mantle. Now the question is, just like all those UConn players before her, can she lead the team that drafted her to championship glory? Sue Bird achieved that with the Seattle Storm, Dianna Taurasi did it with the Phoenix Mercury, Maya Moore did it with the Minnesota Lynx. Can Paige Bueckers do it with the Dallas Wings? Hopefully she can lead them back into the playoffs and she can recapture the magic that she displayed in March Madness in the beginning of autumn and the WNBA Finals will coincide with her birthday on Oct. 20. every year that she plays. Whether she does it in her rookie year or in a later year will be something to watch. But besides her WNBA pursuits, Paige is also investing in a different league that is more interested in compensating women’s basketball players more fairly for their performance and talents.

Paige Bueckers invested in the Unrivaled league that just debuted this past winter and she signed a three-year deal to play on a team in the Unrivaled circuit. Which means as long as she is healthy and willing, people will be seeing a lot more of Paige in the winter months when she played for the UConn Huskies these past five years. Paige will also undoubtedly be a part of Team USA’s Women’s Basketball team in a few years as they look to continue their long gold-medal winning streak in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif. Bueckers will undoubtedly team with fellow women’s basketball stars from her generation in Caitlin Clark, Sabrina Ionescu, Aaliyah Boston and Angel Reese to bring a gold medal to the American women’s team on American soil. There is still much to accomplish for Paige Buckets. One thing is for sure: I’ll be watching to see what will come next in her career. The WNBA, Unrivaled, Team USA. It doesn’t matter what jersey she wears or what league she is playing in. As long as I can watch her on a TV screen or at a live game, I will be very happy to see one of the greatest basketball stars of my generation dribble the ball and run graciously up and down the court for however long she plays for. Paige Bueckers is undoubtedly a powerful woman and she will always have that flare and style that makes her one of the most unique personalities in women’s sports. On and off the court, Paige is a shooting star that will never fade from the spotlight. I wish her well on the next chapter of her incredible basketball journey, one that I had envisioned for myself but instead that she is carrying on.