The 40 -point performance of Paige Bueckers places it among the best ever in Uconn
Spokane, Wash. – Paige Bueckers came out of the game with a little more than three minutes to play against Oklahoma at a Rauca ovation that made the arena in Spokane – almost 2,700 miles from the Huskies house in Storrs – it seemed right in the back of the Bueckers. He had played only seven minutes in the fourth quarter, overcoming the entire Oklahoma team 19-13 in that neighborhood, marking almost half of his 40 best of the night in the night. Of all the greats who come across Uconn – the players now known with their name – nobody had ever marked so much in a game of the NCAA tournament.
Bueckers took a well -deserved place on the bench and Geno Auriemma turned, never to dwell too long in banality and congratulations.
“Have you just come out to get that ove or were you tired?” he asked.
He said he was tired. Auriemma smiled and said he didn’t believe them.
Has trained the last three minutes more hard as the previous 37 and with the passage of time Uconn’s 82-59 Sweet 16 VictoryHe crossed the court and squeezed the hand of the Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk. You could almost see its wheels that already turn forward towards Eight Eight, a game that knows well as the hardest post -stament obstacle.
There is no time to waste in the broken registers, historical performances made. If there is a coach who has most often seen the story made in this game only to transform the few moments later, he is auriemma. It is both a by -product of Uconn size and its players and an ingredient necessary for the success of the program.
It was “a good game as I saw him play for all the time when he was here at the most important moment,” said Auriemma later while Bueckers sat next to him at the post-match press conference, first later, jokingly, backtracking.
“Did I really say it? Is this the best I saw him play? Did he come out of my mouth?” He said with an ironic smile. “Well, it’s the best I saw his shooting, and it was really bad defensively, so we can’t simply leave her out of the hook so easily. We still have, hopefully, another couple of games to do before it is canonized.”
So, for now, we will save the Elderly canon for another day. Instead, we stick to the facts.
It was a good game like Bueckers has ever played Uconn uniform. And it arrived at a time when it was more necessary for this program.
Paige Bueckers Today 🔥
• 40 points
• 6 rebounds
• 6/8 15:00
• 16/27 FG– Women’s Hoops Network (@womenshoops_usa) March 29, 2025
While the shirts of the Huskies team read “Nothing Facil”, Saturday evening, Bueckers certainly seemed very easy.
The way he came out of the screens. As he sank 6 of 8 3 episodes. As he cut and cut to silence through the defense of the Saenors. While the Huskies fought to sink the blows in the first half, despite having had the appearance they wanted, and Bueckers was kept without a score in the second quarter, it seemed ready as always.
If I did not know that Buackers’s career had been diverted several times by injuries and ailments in the last five years (both for her and for her teammates), it would be right to assume that her experience Uconn has had many moments like this. Where eight apparitions were old hats. Where the performance and ovations at 40 points were the norm.
But Bueckers knows better than taking this for granted.
His first year was the pandemic season, with a NCAA tournament played in a bubble without a fan. Her second year, a knee injury made him lose half of the season. A torn acl kept her all over her last year.
Bueckers had chosen the Huskies in 2020 in a national average storm as it was expected to be the player who would report Uconn in his pre -eminent position. But during his period in Storrs, the four-year series of Uconn has been broken and the program lost the back-to-back games for the first time since 1993. The prominence of other programs has increased nationally and the questions turned around a national title “drought” in Uconn who had extended since 2016. Buackers had lived it everything.
So yes, two things can be true: it can enjoy egr and want the rest. He earned him at this point. As a reward, he also earned more basketball. That’s why size takes you to March and April.
Those within the Uconn program always see this version of Bueckers at practices. There are long spans when it takes over, but Auriemma involved it to do it more often (and before) in games for the seasons. That strike mentality can be difficult to bring out a player, especially when it is not its natural state and is surrounded by others all Americans.
Of course, Auriemma wants Bueckers to take the lion’s part of the liability. But would any coach in America glue Bueckers for having to defer, sometimes, to his extraordinary teammates? Or for confidence that any of the other top-10 recruits on the floor with her could also be prepared to sink a shot?
Certainly not.
However, any coach who is good with Bueckers who differs is not what he won 11 national titles. What he has is on the sidelines that will instruct Bueckers to shoot more, even if he doesn’t like it when he has to do 27 shots in a game, as he did against Oklahoma.
That sense of urgency can be a fickle teacher. That lurking purpose (which this could really be the last 40 minutes of your career, Paige) probably hangs on the outskirts of his thoughts. That feeling can be the megaphone that Auriemma needs all this time.
“Little by little, it has made it known about her, I think, that there is no next year. There is no” I can get it every time I want, “said Auriemma.” You will have to get it now, or it will no longer be available. “
So, while Uconn’s basket is still available for her, this time with her teammates is available, the possibility of putting on that n. 5 Huskies Jersey once again available, Bueckers will be that player. It will be 27 times. He will take a game. It will not take any time for granted on the floor.
All the lessons of the last five years, learned from the court’s trial, bench and recovery, seem to be coalents in this final stretch. He has certainly increased his level of game and his mentality is different. Uconn, who probably has some holes in the roster, is knocking on the door of four other finals because of who can be buckers and, apparently, who is finally becoming.
That ove was well earned. Because Bueckers knew that, by choosing the Huskies, the pressure would come in times of more than his career and the spotlight would never shine brighter than in these moments.
“When you are an elderly man and you were around all the time, that’s what you’re here to do,” said Auriemma. “This is why you came here.”
(Photo of Paige Bueckers: Photo of Tyler McFarland / NCAA via Getty Images)
