TAMPA, Fla. — Something is going to happen on Sunday afternoon that is going to feel more than a little weird. We’re going to see Paige Bueckers in a Connecticut basketball jersey for the very last time.
It’s unfathomable, in a way. Bueckers is so synonymous with UConn — how could this already be the end of her illustrious college career? But at the same time, of course it’s time for her to finally move on to the WNBA. After those awful knee injuries she had to endure and bounce back from … and those undermanned UConn teams that made March runs with short benches, squads that sure came close to winning it all but didn’t quite get there. She’s 23 and has already lived so many basketball lives.
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On Sunday, Bueckers will lead these Huskies for one final time, with one last chance to win a national championship when they take on South Carolina here at Amalie Arena. Unlike basically every other UConn legend before her, she doesn’t yet have a national title to her name. The Huskies haven’t cut down the nets and hoisted that trophy in nearly a decade, which is kind of astonishing for a program that won four in a row a decade ago — and 11 total under Geno Auriemma’s tutelage.
“The goal of every kid that comes to UConn is, ‘I want to walk off the court with the last game of my senior year being a national championship game, and we win that game,’” Auriemma told me on SiriusXM this weekend. “That’s not realistic, but it’s a great goal to have. And I think all the players like Paige, who have been in Paige’s shoes, have had their own personal journeys to get to this point, and they’ve invested a lot of themselves every day.
“Paige has invested as much — if not more — of her personal self into our program and into her game and into the community than anyone that we’ve had. So, she deserves something like this. Only problem is, so do some of the South Carolina kids, but, yeah, it’d be bittersweet if Paige wins this national championship at UConn, because that’s one less thing I can annoy her about.”
Auriemma smiled. “Annoying” is one of Bueckers’ favorite descriptors. It’s basically a term of endearment. On Saturday, she described herself as annoying. “Extremely loving, caring, annoying,” to be specific, she said. “A lot of people would describe me as like childish, annoying, extra — all of those things.”
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“I love to get on people’s nerves and just bother them and be a gnat,” Bueckers said. “But it’s all out of love.”
Auriemma has called her annoying. He’s called Diana Taurasi annoying. He pokes at his players the same way they poke at him. Which is why it works, and why Auriemma can then get on his players, too — like when he told Bueckers during UConn’s run to the Final Four that she really needed to shoot the ball more. Auriemma needed her to be more selfish and more aggressive, and she needed to hear it. (Bueckers scored 30-plus points in three consecutive games to help the Huskies get to Tampa.)
“I guess maybe it’s like all his favorite players he calls annoying,” Bueckers said. “But he’s definitely annoying himself. So, I’m sure he recruits like-minded people.”
There’s nothing that the annoying coach wants more than for his most annoying pupil to cut down the nets on Sunday afternoon. He knows she is capable of delivering when the moment demands it, just as Taurasi and other UConn greats did.
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“They can summon up something that’s needed at a time when it’s exactly needed,” Auriemma said on Thursday. “They take responsibility for what happens. They’re not afraid of the criticism that might come if they fail.”
And, frankly, there could be a great deal of criticism if this UConn team comes up short. The Huskies were the odds-on favorite to win it all coming out of the Elite Eight, and they certainly looked the part in their 34-point win over No. 1 overall seed UCLA on Friday night. Sure, South Carolina is South Carolina, and Dawn Staley’s group is trying to win its third national championship in four years. But this is Bueckers and Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong. This is an exquisite and efficient offensive team. This is a stingy and disciplined defensive team. This is a great team trying to prove to itself and the nation it is the best one, too.
“Obviously there are expectations here,” Bueckers said on Thursday. “Anything less than a national championship is really a disappointment. As players, that’s what you play for and what you want to live up to. And the expectations and the pressure, it’s a privilege.”
As for talk of her legacy? Her impact on the game and at UConn? She’ll defer to everyone else to make those claims. Staley, for one, said that Bueckers has always been legit and that her career is legendary, that she has already left a legacy in Storrs, no matter what happens on Sunday.
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“The thing I take great joy and great pride in is the relationships, the experiences, the journeys we’ve gone on throughout the team,” Bueckers said. “Really, the journey is the reward for me. And I never take it for granted being able to play here and put on this uniform.
“Whatever talks of legacy and whatever — I guess that’s not up to me. All I can worry about and control is who I am every single day and who we are as a team. That’s all I’m worried about.”
But her teammates want this title for her. Her coach wants to see her up on a ladder, cutting down the net. Even if it’s one less thing he can bug her about for the rest of her life.
That’s a sacrifice he’s happily willing to make.
