The accolades that the University of Connecticut Huskies’ Paige Bueckers has earned across her collegiate career are nothing short of legendary. Four consecutive trips to the Final Four. The first freshman to win the AP Player of the Year, Wooden Award, and Naismith College Player of the Year award. Two-time BIG EAST Player of the Year. The 2025 Wade Trophy winner for the best NCAA Division I women’s basketball player. The presumptive no. 1 pick in the upcoming WNBA Draft.
The one item missing from her stellar resume? A national championship.
Bueckers committed to UConn with the primary goal of securing a 12th natty for the Huskies. Although she has come close to winning it all in every year that she’s been at UConn — including losing in the finals to the University of South Carolina in 2022 — Bueckers is down to her last opportunity.
While some players may struggle with the pressure that Bueckers is under every time she steps on court, and which has only been magnified in her last season, it seems like Bueckers has never played better than she has in this year’s March Madness tournament. After leading UConn to a win over San Diego State University with a 34-point performance, Bueckers showed out with a career-high 40-point performance over Oklahoma University. Against No. 1 seed University of South Carolina, Bueckers kept her level up with a 31-point, six-assist performance to seal UConn’s fourth Final Four visit in Bueckers’ four years.
At the moment, the possibility of Bueckers finally winning a national championship is at the front of everyone’s minds. But for over a year, there was no certainty that Bueckers would even have the chance to compete again. A torn ACL in 2022 threatened to derail Bueckers’ career, and with it any hopes of living up to the high expectations that she entered college with. Nevertheless, the star of the Huskies persevered and has set herself up for one final opportunity to reach the pinnacle of college basketball.
However, despite Bueckers’ continued improvement and impressive career, many say she has yet to establish herself as one of UConn’s greatest players of all time since she has never taken home the hardware. As of now, she is undoubtedly UConn’s greatest to never earn a title, but bringing a championship back to Storrs would put Bueckers’ name among those of Sue Bird, Rebecca Lobo, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, and Breanna Stewart.
In an interview, Bird told ESPN that winning a national championship isn’t the most important criterion for every player — unless that player is in the conversation of being the greatest. In that instance, and in the case of Bueckers, Bird said, “I do think it is the ultimate tiebreaker.”
But is it? Without a banner from her career hanging in UConn’s rafters, will Bueckers’ collegiate career be forgotten?
Bueckers’ impact cannot be understated. She has single-handedly shouldered the pressure of being the best player on women’s college basketball’s greatest team. She has risen from a catastrophic injury to being one of the top two players in college basketball, alongside the University of Southern California’s JuJu Watkins. She is tied for being the fastest woman in UConn history to reach 1,000 points alongside Moore and holds the record for the first to 2,000 points, reaching the milestone in just 102 games. Bueckers has been the backbone of a UConn team that has been one of the four best teams in college basketball every season she has stepped on the court.
Regardless of whether or not she and the Huskies win the national championship on Sunday, Paige Bueckers will remain a legendary name and figure in UConn’s storied history.
