Paige Bueckers has always had a special and well-known bond with Geno Auriemma. When she was with the UConn Huskies, the Dallas Wings star had a difficult time with injuries. She returned to the Huskies for her fifth and final season to win the national championship, but the journey was tougher than what people realized.
After missing a full season with an ACL injury, Bueckers had a chip on her shoulder in her final season. It had also been nine years since Auriemma won an NCAA title with UConn. Before the 2025 win, UConn’s last title came in 2016, which was its fourth in a row.
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It was an important season for the Huskies and the pressure was high. In the upcoming docuseries, ‘The Dynasty: UConn Huskies,’ Sarah Strong talked about an incident between coach Auriemma and Bueckers that shocked her and the rest of the team.
“I wasn’t expecting him to attack Paige like that. He was just yelling at her and, I don’t know, saying really hurtful things to her. It was really shocking to her,” Strong said.
This was after the Huskies lost to Tennessee in February. According to Auriemma, it was the hardest loss in quite some time. He apparently put the blame solely on Bueckers. He wanted Bueckers to feel the hurt of the loss as much as he did.
“I took a risk and I said, ‘She’s either going to quit or she’s going to change.’ So I tried to hurt her like losing hurts,” coach Auriemma said in the docuseries.
After the altercation, Bueckers admitted questioning if she really wanted to be at UConn.
Azzi Fudd talks about tensions between Paige Bueckers and Geno Auriemma
In ‘The Dynasty: UConn Huskies,’ Azzi Fudd spoke about the time when Paige Bueckers confided in her about her struggles. It was a difficult time after Geno Auriemma unloaded on Bueckers.
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“We had conversations about, like, everything that was going on. When things weren’t going right, it was usually all Paige’s fault,” Fudd said.
Bueckers told Fudd that she came back for her fifth year because she thought the Huskies would have things figured out and that it would be fun. While the journey was difficult, it eventually ended in a national championship.
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“We had conversations”: Azzi Fudd Recalls Paige Bueckers’ Tensions With Geno Auriemma
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