SPOKANE, Wash. — Paige Bueckers exited the game with just more than three minutes to play against Oklahoma to a raucous ovation that made the arena in Spokane — nearly 2,700 miles from Connecticut’s home court in Storrs — sound like it was right in Bueckers’ backyard. She had played just seven minutes in the fourth quarter, outscoring the entire Oklahoma team 19-13 in that quarter, tallying nearly half of her career-best 40 points on the night in that span. Of all the greats to come through UConn — the players now known by their first name — none had ever scored as much in an NCAA Tournament game.
Bueckers took a well-earned seat on the bench, and Geno Auriemma turned around, never one to dwell too long on platitudes and congratulations.
“Did you come out just to get that ovation, or were you tired?” he asked.
She said she was tired. Auriemma smirked and said he didn’t believe her.
He coached the final three minutes as hard as he did the previous 37, and as time expired in UConn’s 82-59 Sweet 16 victory, he crossed the court and shook Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk’s hand. You could almost see his wheels already spinning ahead to the Elite Eight, a game he knows well as the hardest postseason hurdle.
No time to waste on records broken, historic performances made. If there’s a coach who has most often watched history made in this game only to turn the page moments later, it’s Auriemma. It’s both a byproduct of the greatness of UConn and its players, and a necessary ingredient to the program’s success.
It was “as good a game as I’ve seen her play the whole time she’s been here at the most important time,” Auriemma said as Bueckers sat next to him at the postgame news conference, before later, half-jokingly, backtracking.
“Did I really say that? That that’s the best I’ve seen her play? That came out of my mouth?” he said with a wry smile. “Well, that’s the most I’ve seen her shoot, and she was really bad defensively, so we can’t just let her off the hook that easily. We still got, hopefully, a couple more games to go before she gets canonized.”
So, for now, we’ll save the senior’s canon for another day. Instead, let’s stick to the facts.
It was as good a game as Bueckers has ever played in a UConn uniform. And it came at a time when it was most necessary for this program.
PAIGE BUECKERS TODAY 🔥
• 40 POINTS
• 6 REBOUNDS
• 6/8 3PM
• 16/27 FG— Women’s Hoops Network (@WomensHoops_USA) March 29, 2025
While the Huskies’ team shirts read “Nothing easy” on Saturday night, Bueckers sure made a lot look easy.
The way she came off screens. How she sank 6 of 8 3-pointers. How she sliced and diced through the Sooners defense. As the Huskies struggled to sink shots in the first half, despite getting the looks they wanted, and as Bueckers was held scoreless in the second quarter, she looked as poised as ever.
If you didn’t know that Bueckers’ career had been hijacked multiple times by injuries and ailments over the last five years (both to her and her teammates), it would be fair to assume that her UConn experience had many moments like this. Where Elite Eight appearances were old hat. Where 40-point performances and ovations were the norm.
But Bueckers knows better than to take this for granted.
Her freshman year was the pandemic season, with an NCAA Tournament played in a bubble with no fans. Her sophomore year, a knee injury caused her to miss half the season. A torn ACL held her out the entirety of her junior year.
Bueckers had chosen the Huskies in 2020 amid a national media storm as she was predicted to be the player who would return UConn to its pre-eminent position. But during her time in Storrs, UConn’s 14-year Final Four streak was broken and the program lost back-to-back games for the first time since 1993. Other programs’ prominence rose nationally, and questions swirled around a national title “drought” at UConn that had extended since 2016. Bueckers had lived through it all.
So yes, two things can be true: She can enjoy the ovation and want the rest. She has earned it. As a reward, she has also earned more basketball. That’s what greatness gets you in March and April.
Those inside UConn’s program see this version of Bueckers all the time at practices. There are long spans when she takes over, but Auriemma has been imploring her to do it more often (and earlier) in games for seasons. That strike-first mentality can be hard to bring out of a player, especially when it’s not her natural state and she’s surrounded by other All-Americans.
Sure, Auriemma wants Bueckers to take the lion’s share of responsibility. But would any coach in America blame Bueckers for deferring, at times, to her standout teammates? Or for trusting that any of the other top-10 recruits with her on the floor might also be primed to sink a shot?
Certainly not.
Yet, any coach who’s fine with Bueckers deferring isn’t the one who has won 11 national titles. The one who is on the sideline instructing Bueckers to shoot more, even though she doesn’t like it when she has to take 27 shots in a game, as she did against Oklahoma.
That sense of urgency can be a fickle teacher. That lurking finality (that this truly could be the last 40 minutes of your career, Paige) probably hangs on the outskirts of her thoughts. That feeling can be the megaphone that Auriemma has needed all this time.
“Little by little, it’s dawned on her, I think, that there is no next year. There is no ‘I can get this anytime I want,’” Auriemma said. “You’re going to have to get it now, or it won’t be available anymore.”
So, while the basketball at UConn is still available to her, this time with her teammates is available, the chance to put on that No. 5 Huskies jersey one more time is available, Bueckers will be that player. She will shoot 27 times. She will take over a game. She will not take for granted any moment on the floor.
All the lessons of the last five years, learned from the court, bench and recovery process, seem to be coalescing in this final stretch. She has certainly upped her level of play, and her mentality is different. UConn, which arguably has some holes on the roster, is knocking on the door of another Final Four because of who Bueckers can be and, it seems, who she is finally becoming.
That ovation was well earned. Because Bueckers knew that by choosing the Huskies, the pressure would come in the highest-stakes moments of her career and the spotlight would never shine brighter than in these moments.
“When you’re a senior and you’ve been around as long as she has, this is what you’re here to do,” Auriemma said. “This is why you came here.”
(Photo: Tyler McFarland / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
