2 days Ago By Yahoo Sports
The days are dwindling for Paige Bueckers . In eight days, a national champion will be crowned. In 16 days, she’s projected to be selected No.
1 in the WNBA Draft . That April evening in New York will officially bring an end to her collegiate career. In the blink of a 40-minute game that doesn’t bend her way, that could happen anyway.
She didn’t let it on Saturday, erupting in the second half of the Spokane 4 regional semifinal for a career-best 40 points . No. 2 UConn advanced past No.
3 Oklahoma, 82-59 . “Little by little it's dawned on her, I think, that there is no next year, there is no, you know, 'I can get this anytime I want,'” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said. “You're going to have to get it now or it won't be available anymore.
” Bueckers wants a national championship, a goal that has eluded her through four years and a myriad of injuries in her collegiate career. She has an extra year available to her, but has said repeatedly she plans to leave UConn and enter the WNBA. When she came into the program as the No.
1 recruit in the 2020 class — three spots ahead of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark — she and Huskies fans dreamed of a streak of championships. It would be the great ascension of the powerhouse back to the throne. The Naismith Award finalist is three wins from winning one and only one.
Time is running short. “You do know in the back of your mind that every possession counts, and it will be my last season here at UConn,” Bueckers said. “So obviously, you know that, but you try to just stay in the present.
” For years, fans and basketball junkies have lived in the other tenses to place this present generational star in context. The future will bring more for Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and a long list of Huskies. But the past is how we measure her, because it was more successful.
Fair or not, Bueckers is playing for legacy in this final NCAA tournament. The Greats of All Time win titles, as many say. So many of the best to ever wear a jersey with the NCAA emblem came through Storrs, Connecticut.
All of them stood in the final blast of confetti at least. Breanna Stewart, the only women’s or men’s player with four titles, last led UConn to the top in 2016. Bueckers hasn’t, to this point, broken the skid that began afterward even though she’s made a Final Four every year she’s played.
Diana Taurasi won three, single-handedly willing the 2003 squad to the trophy with an all-time performance. Bueckers fell short of that as a sophomore in her hometown . Maya Moore won two straight with an undefeated squad.
Bueckers went back-to-back undefeated in a less competitive Big East. To level up next to them will require incremental steps in the coming eight days. In the Sweet 16, she delivered what drew unsolicited praise from Auriemma.
“That was as good a game as I've seen her play the whole time she's been here, at the most important time,” Auriemma said in his opening statement to reporters. “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.” Oklahoma had yet to lose in 22 games when leading at the half.
They had also not faced Bueckers. The point guard turned up an 11-point first half (4-of-11) into a 29-point second half (12-of-16) that included draining five 3-pointers on six attempts. “There's an element as a coach where you can't ever say you're super satisfied with how you guarded, and she just made plays,” Oklahoma head coach Jennie Baranczyk said.
“And there's the other part of you that knows that she's really good. We have seen a lot of film on her and it's not like this is the only time that she's ever done that. But she was really, really good today.
” Her 40 points are the most scored by a Husky in NCAA history. She passed Moore in 25-point tournament games and is the only one to reach multiple 30-point games in a single tournament. She passed Tina Charles for fourth on the all-time scoring list.
It will all be accolades listed under the name a legendary player many feel underperformed within the collective, not taking into account the context of her more than 1,500 days at UConn. They’ll only care that it doesn’t say national champion, should her season and career end short of it. In the locker room after the win, Auriemma delivered a message to Bueckers and the Huskies as they enter the final days of the season.
The next one on Monday is the most difficult for every team standing one step from the dream of playing in a Final Four. “We wanted to make sure,” Auriemma said. “We keep the focus on ‘I don't care who we're playing, this game is a bit** and don't talk about the Final Four.
’”.
