According to UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma, star guard Paige Bueckers should be fully ready for the start of the 2023-24 NCAA season.
Bueckers, 21, tore her left ACL last summer in a game of pickup basketball. An injury which cost her the entirety of the 2022-23 season. However, speaking at a charity golf tournament recently, Auriemma revealed that the former national player of the year winner is currently back to “90%” of her old self on her path towards recovery.
“This is the best she’s ever been, the strongest she’s ever been, the fittest she’s ever been,” the UConn coach said. “This is the most time she has spent working on her body, her mind, just taking care of herself… if you want a long career, this is how you’re gonna have to go about it from here on in injuries, no injuries, it doesn’t matter. This is what you’re gonna have to do. And she’s embraced it.”
“I’ve never seen her better either at playing one-on-one, 2-on-2 or 3-on-3, what she’s doing in the weight room. Just her whole walk, the way she walks around, the way everybody looks up to her and the way everybody hangs on every word she says, there’s just a maturity about her.”
Without their star guard, the Huskies still managed to go 31-6 last season, and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Championships, before bowing out to #3 Ohio State 73-61. The injury unfortunately wasn’t the first to pop up for the talented redshirt junior.
Previously she tore her lateral meniscus, and also had a tibial plateau fracture. Those two setbacks limited her to just 17 games during her Sophomore year. Those injuries, coupled with her ACL tear have motivated the Minnesota native to overhaul her offcourt training regimen in the hopes of putting together a healthy NCAA season this fall.
While UConn will be looking to begin their streak of Final Four appearances anew this year, after it was snapped at 14 consecutive tournaments last season, Bueckers will have added motivation to reinsert herself into the “best collegiate player” conversation once more.
With Bueckers sidelined, Iowa guard Caitlin Clark, and LSU forward Angel Reese have established themselves as bonafide stars in the college ranks. Bueckers’ teammate Aaliyah Edwards, and LSU transfer student Hailey van Lith have also seen their stocks soar over the past 365 days as well.
If the 2024 WNBA draft were to be held today, there’s a genuine case for each of the above to be selected with a top 5 pick. However, what Bueckers elects to do following this season eligibility wise will likely hinge on how quickly she can get back up to game speed in the fall.
Once viewed as a lock to be a top pick, Bueckers will need to reassert herself amongst her peers if she hopes to wrestle back the crown from Clark & Co. this year. As a freshman she averaged 20pts/2.3stls/4.9reb/5.8ast per game in 2020-21. However an injury plagued season the following year saw her averages dip to 14.6pts/1.5stls/4reb/3.9ast across 17 games.
While her coach stopped short of saying that Bueckers would suit up for the Huskies European exhibition series in August, he did indicate that if the stakes were higher, she would likely give it a go.
“I think it’s going to be when she feels mentally ready, not physically ready, mentally,” Auriemma said. “Physically, 90%, she said 90%. If we were in the Final Four this coming week, you think she’d play? Hell yeah, but this isn’t April.”
With sky high expectations for the Huskies after what many close to the program consider a “down year” by their lofty standards, Bueckers’ primary focus will be on winning UConn a 12th national championship this year. But if she returns to the level of play she flashed as a freshman, then she could also be hearing her name called atop the next WNBA draft class as well.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Ian Bethune. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.