Before And After The Injury – Paige Bueckers’ Tale of Resilience And Triumph

In just 21 minutes, she hooped 8 points, gripped 7 rebounds, and made 4 assists. This is how the long-awaited point guard Paige Bueckers returned to the court and won the matchup against Dayton. Even after spending around 584 days recovering from her injury, Paige has managed to maintain that high level of performance.

Her National Team career has been shining with stellar achievements. Representing the United States, she won 3 gold medals in the 2017 FIBA Americas Under-16 Championship in Women’s 3×3 basketball, in the 2018 FIBA Under-17 World Cup, and in the 2019 FIBA Under-19 World Cup respectively. She was also recognized as the USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year in 2019. Now, as she has made a comeback, let’s weigh down her pre and post-injury performances.

Paige Bueckers before ACL injury

During her freshman season in 2020-21, Paige performed with sheer brilliance. She averaged 20 points and 4.9 rebounds. With an impressive shooting percentage of 52.4 from the field and 46.4 from the 3-point range, she started off 29 games.

Leading UConn to the Final Four of the 2021 NCAA Championship Tournament, she became the Huskies’ top scorer while making 66 steals and delivering 5.8 assists per game. With a total of 168 assists, Paige set UConn’s freshman record. Also, on 27th Feb 2021, she made 14 assists in a game against Butler, setting the school’s single-game assist record. That season, the first-team All-American ended up earning 11 major honors and became the first freshman to receive the Wooden Award, Naismith Trophy, AP Player of the Year, and USBWA Player of the Year.

In the following season, she moved her game to another level. Playing in 6 games, Paige averaged 21.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 6.2 assists, with a shooting percentage of 56.2 from the field and 31 from the 3-point line.

After leading her team to the national championship game, Paige tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee during a pick-up game in August last year.

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Although the injury halted Paige’s basketball career, she eventually returned to the court with the same level of enthusiasm and finesse that she had before getting injured.

Paige Bueckers after ACL injury

After missing the entire 2022-23 season, Paige redshirted the 2023-24 season instead of declaring herself for WNBA draft. On September 1, she announced her return to UConn. In her comeback game against Dayton, she finished the night with 8 hoops, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and a steal. That night, Uconn ended up thrashing Dayton with an almost double-point score of 102-58 win.

The matchup started with a weird twist. Evidently, the fans witnessed Paige’s teammate Azzi Fudd making a couple of free throws, giving the team a 2-0 lead even before the game began. The reason behind such a move by officials was triggered by one of Dayton’s flyers as they entered the court donning a wrong jersey number, hence committing a technical foul.

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Clearly, the nickname ‘Paige Buckets’ suits her well, as she didn’t give up on herself and her game even after getting badly injured.