Paige Bueckers earns 'dream' UConn honor on Senior Day
Today at 07:48 PM
UConn Women’s basketball (28-3) has not won a national championship in almost nine seasons, but Paige Bueckers has done her part to make sure the last several years have been memorable just the same. The star guard has managed to stand out as one of the five or 10 best players in program history, a feat that is quite astonishing given that she has never cut down the nets in the final game of the year.
Legends like Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, Rebecca Lobo, Sue Bird and Tina Charles are all immortalized in UConn hoops lore, and now Bueckers is joining them. The team’s sixth-leading scorer all-time (2,204) was inducted into the Huskies of Honor on Senior Day, following a 92-57 trouncing of Marquette in the 2024-25 regular season finale.
Paige Bueckers was inducted into the Huskies of Honor on Senior Day #NCAAWBB x FS1 / @UConnWBBpic.twitter.com/qWcPjAuh8r
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) March 2, 2025
Paige Bueckers shows her appreciation
Bueckers was both humbled to see her name and No. 5 enshrined in what is essentially UConn’s Hall of Fame. A special ceremony was inevitable considering all the individual accolades the 23-year-old has collected since 2020, but she did not expect it to take place on Sunday.
“Definitely surreal,” Bueckers told reporters, via UConn on SNY, after recording 19 points (7-of-11 shooting), seven assists, four rebounds and three steals versus the Golden Eagles.
“The stuff that’s happened to me here, that’s happened to the team here, you don’t really reflect on it until it’s over. So, it still to me feels like a dream and it’s not real. It was really cool, I didn’t know that was happening today, so to have that experience, to share that with my teammates and my coaching staff, it meant a lot.”
Paige Bueckers and the 12-time reigning Big East regular season champions are entering the postseason with great momentum, ending conference play a perfect 18-0 after crushing Marquette. The woman of honor and her teammates now turn their attention to some unfinished business.
"It still to me feels like a dream"
Paige Bueckers says it was "surreal" to become a Husky of Honor today: pic.twitter.com/l8F5Rzcibl
— UConn on SNY (@SNYUConn) March 2, 2025
Bueckers, UConn have what it takes to go the distance
When UConn women’s basketball lost marquee matchups to Notre Dame, USC and Tennessee earlier in the season, it felt like Storrs’ wait for an 11th national championship was sure to continue. Though, after the Huskies thrashed South Carolina on the road, 87-58, on a day in which Bueckers shot 3-of-12 from the field, the squad’s aspirations were restored.
This program is looking extremely dangerous in March. Again. UConn’s top player must deliver on a consistent basis, however. The 2021 AP Player of the Year has weathered serious injuries– tibial plateau fracture, lateral meniscus tear and a torn ACL– and has competed during a golden age for the sport, with stars like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso and JuJu Watkins all bursting onto the scene.
The aforementioned USC guard is a phenomenon with a national commercial and prime opportunity to win a title in her sophomore campaign. But Paige Bueckers is intent on hanging another banner in Gampel Pavilion before she enters the WNBA this spring.
She averages 19.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.1 steals in 113 games while shooting an outstanding 53 percent from the floor and 42 percent from 3-point range. Now, the two-time unanimous All-American wants to punctuate those statistics with the ultimate prize. Regardless of what lies ahead in the next month, though, Paige Bueckers will always be a member of the Huskies of Honor.
Her head coach is filled with pride. “You always want it to be special and I think today certainly was for her,” the legendary Geno Auriemma said, per UConn on SNY. Everyone will find out just how special this season will become for the UConn great.
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