Paige Bueckers and UConn hope to take next step toward title in Elite Eight rematch with USC

By Canadian Press on March 30, 2025.

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — UConn coach Geno Auriemma caused a minor stir during last year’s NCAA Tournament when he proclaimed that his star guard, Paige Bueckers, was the best player in the country.

It raised eyebrows given Iowa phenom Caitlin Clark’s stature, but Auriemma stood by his assessment.

With a career-best 40-point performance in this year’s Sweet 16, Bueckers keeps proving that she is, indeed, one of the game’s top talents and perhaps the best player in the tournament this year.

Bueckers and her UConn teammates have aims on a national title, something Clark failed to do with Iowa, losing twice in the championship game. But first, the Huskies (34-3) have an Elite Eight rematch with Southern California (31-3).

“You try not to think about the stakes or the pressure or getting to the Final Four,” Bueckers said. “Obviously, that’s there, so you try not to think about it and just go out and play every single game the same way, like it’s your last, like it’s the most important 40 minutes of your life.”

With Bueckers expected to be the top pick in April’s WNBA draft, each game could be her last for UConn. She took over in the second half on Saturday to lead the Huskies to an 82-59 rout of Oklahoma.

Bueckers’ 40 points topped her previous career high of 34, set in UConn’s second-round victory over South Dakota State in her final home game at Gampel Pavilion.

She also matched her career high with six 3-pointers against the Sooners before checking out to a standing ovation.

“Paige was spectacular,” Auriemma said. “That was as good a game as I’ve seen her play the whole time she’s been here, at the most important time. When you’re a senior and you’ve been around as long as she has, this is what you’re here to do. This is why you came here.”

Bueckers arrived at UConn in 2020 and was the consensus national player of the year as a freshman. She played just 17 games the next season and sat out the entire 2022-23 campaign with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

This season, she earned AP All-America honors and was named the Big East player of the year for the third time.

Auriemma has led UConn to a record 11 national titles, most recently in 2016. The Huskies lost to Clark and Iowa in the Final Four last season.

“Paige has been an incredible player for years now,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “She does it efficiently. It’s her ability to score, her ability to pass and involve others to move without the basketball. I think what we’re seeing is a little different now … it’s an urgency, right? Not that she’s not been urgent before, but you see it in her face. There’s no more waiting. It can’t be ‘OK, next time.’ It’s right now.”

Fans had anticipated a possible Elite Eight showdown between Bueckers and USC star guard JuJu Watkins, but Watkins suffered a season-ending knee injury in the second round. USC lost to UConn in the Elite Eight last year when Watkins was a freshman.

Without Watkins, USC got a boost from freshmen Kennedy Smith and Avery Howell in their 67-61 victory over Kansas State on Saturday. The Trojans are looking for their first national title since they won back-to-back championships in 1983 and ’84. But Watkins’ absence unquestionably hurts their chances.

Bueckers can relate, given the ACL injury that sidelined her two seasons ago.

“I know last year, a huge part of my journey was wanting to inspire people who have gone through terrible injuries, devastating blows, that you can come back better and stronger, and nobody can write you off, nobody can put you in a box to the injury-related narratives,” Bueckers said. “You can break all those narratives, and you can come back better than ever mentally, physically, emotionally.”

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Anne M. Peterson, The Associated Press