Sarah Strong was sensational. Azzi Fudd was the Most Outstanding Player.
But in so many ways, UConn’s NCAA championship win over South Carolina on Sunday was about Paige Bueckers.
Win or lose, Bueckers was playing the final game of a storied and sometimes tumultuous UConn career. The former prep sensation burst on to the NCAA scene as a freshman in 2021 when she earned multiple National Player of the Year awards.
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Since then, a pair of devastating knee injuries stunted her progress and threatened her career. A tibia fracture and meniscus tear sidelined her for most of the 2021-22 season. Then, an ACL tear cost her the entire 2022-23 campaign.
Since then, Bueckers has returned healthy and strong to earn first-team All-America honors in consecutive seasons in a college career that’s expected to culminate with her selection as the first overall pick in the WNBA draft.
Bueckers, Auriemma have their moment
As of Saturday, there was only one significant thing missing from Bueckers’ NCAA résumé — a national championship. On Sunday, that box got ticked. And when the win was secured, Bueckers shared an emotional moment on the UConn sideline with head coach Geno Auriemma.
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With 1:32 remaining and UConn leading, 82-53, Auriemma pulled Bueckers from the game for a curtain call. Bueckers and Auriemma then shared a long, tearful embrace by the bench before Bueckers exchanged hugs with other members of the UConn staff and her teammates.
What did Geno say?
After the game, Bueckers spoke with ESPN’s Holly Rowe about that moment.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been that emotional when a player’s walked off the court,” Auriemma said.
Rowe then asked Auriemma what he said to Bueckers.
“‘I love you,'” he told Rowe that he said to Bueckers. “That’s all I could say. ‘I love you.'”
Geno Auriemma and Paige Bueckers shared an emotional embrace at the end of UConn’s NCAA championship win over South Carolina. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
(Maddie Meyer via Getty Images)
Moments later, it was Bueckers’ turn to speak with Rowe.
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“Unreal. Just so much gratitude for everything this program has meant to me,” Bueckers said. “For how much my teammates mean to me. And this is from the top to the bottom.”‘
Bueckers then shared her account of her sideline conversation with Auriemma.
“He told me he loved me, and I told him I hated him,” Bueckers said with a laugh. “No, I love that man more than words can describe. There are a lot of times when I don’t.
“But it’s because he’s challenging me and making us all better in ways we never even knew we could. And he always has our back. Sometimes, it feels he’s on you and he has nothing but bad things to say.
“But he always has belief. He always has your back. Just the relationship that we have, I can’t even put into words.”
It was an emotional moment and the culmination of a coach-player relationship that’s experienced high-profile ups and downs over the course of five seasons. It added up to a storybook ending for Bueckers and a highlight in the storied history of UConn basketball.