The stakes have never been higher for UConn star guard Paige Bueckers this March as she looks to clinch the elusive NCAA title in her final season with the Huskies.
Coming from an unrivaled basketball program in Storrs that has produced the likes of Maya Moore, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi and Breanna Stewart, Bueckers is hoping to fill the blank space on her resume reserved for the NCAA championship in 2025. The fifth-year senior battled through a devastating ACL tear earlier in her career and is primed for a deep tournament run with UConn recently earning its 31st straight Sweet 16 berth.
One could argue Bueckers faces the same question that haunted Caitlin Clark back when she played for the Iowa Hawkeyes: Does the lack of an NCAA title make her college hoops career any less great?
UConn coach Geno Auriemma is well aware of the outside noise surrounding Bueckers's final run and gave her a powerful message to drown out the critics:
"You don't owe anybody anything," Auriemma told Bueckers, via ESPN's Alexa Philippou. "And if you don't play another game ever at the University of Connecticut, you've given them way more than they bargained for when you got here, regardless of what anybody thinks."
Bueckers is already the most efficient player in women's college basketball history in the last 25 years and has remarkably shot 50/40/90 this past season—at least 50% from the field, 40% from three-point range and 90% at the foul line.
With or without the NCAA trophy, Bueckers has every reason to hold her head up high going into the 2025 WNBA draft in April, where she's expected to be the No. 1 pick.
"Because if you are (happy with yourself), your life is going to be fantastic, whether you ever leave here with a national championship or you don't," continued Auriemma. "And if you're not happy with yourself and you win a national championship, that ain't gonna make you happier. It'll make a lot of people around you happier, but ain't gonna make you happier."
Bueckers and UConn will face No. 3 Oklahoma in the Sweet 16 on Saturday afternoon.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as UConn’s Geno Auriemma Shared His Powerful Message to Paige Bueckers During NCAA Run.
