Paige Bueckers’ resilience and determination have played a key role in her successful return to the court post-recovery. She concluded her first game with a decent 8 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal. Ranking at No. 3 on ESPN’s Top 25 women’s basketball players list, she has been averaging 21.2 points, 6.2 assists, and 5.5 rebounds per game this season.

Despite her injuries, she delivered remarkable performances as a Husky as well as a national team player. Let’s learn why she is successfully soaring high.

Paige Bueckers shinning bright as one of NCAA’s top players

Paige Bueckers has been setting some interesting records on her path to this season’s national championship. Bueckers became the first freshman to earn four major national women’s college player of the year awards. Notably, she won the Nancy Lieberman Award as the top point guard in the nation. Moreover, she also won two major NCAA Division I Freshman of the Year awards namely the USBWA’s Tamika Catchings Award and the WBCA Freshman of the Year Award. Bueckers shares both of these awards with Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.

During her freshman season, she averaged 20 points, 4.9 rebounds, 5.8 assists, and 2.3 steals per game. Moreover, she threw shots with a shooting percentage of 46.4%. She also set a record in dishing out the most assists as a freshman in the program’s history with 168 assists. In addition, she set the record for single-game assists.

During the Final Four semifinals, Bueckers became the fifth freshman to score 100 points in a single women’s NCAA tournament. It happened in the third quarter of UConn’s matchup against Arizona. Reaching this milestone, she joined the other 4 players before her namely, Tamika Catchings with 111 points in 1998, USC’s Cheryl Miller with 109 points in 1983, UConn’s Breanna Stewart with 104 points in 2013, and Texas’ Clarissa Davis with 103 points in 1986. That week she was also named the AP Player of the Week, marking one of the greatest rookie seasons in UConn’s history.

More significant to the above achievement, Bueckers made headlines when she scored the 1000th career point in a winning matchup against UNC. Notably, during the second half of the game, Bueckers took over the court and reached 998 career points, however, after 15 seconds she reached 1000. Becoming one of the fastest Husky to reach that milestone, tying the score with Maya Moore.

From that point on, nothing could stop her as she fell to the floor, rolling to her feet. She then collected her steal on the Huskies’ end and hooped another smooth layup, pushing it to 1002 points.

“Maya is one of the GOATs, so to be in that space is just amazing. It’s just a testament to all that my teammates have done for me, all that my coaches have done for me, I’m just a product of what they do for me, so extremely grateful and it’s an honor to be next to her,” said Bueckers.

Another impactful moment in Bueckers’ career was when she made a winning return to the court. The Gampel Pavilion echoed with cheers and screams as she was introduced in the UConn Huskies’ starting lineup. Such a grand welcome she received as she set foot on the court after 580 days she spent in injury recovery. Driving into the lane she made the first bucket of the game.

Drawing a foul on the play, she ran to the student section with her arms held up high as she screamed back to the crowd in celebration. She made her unofficial return in an exhibition game against Southern Connecticut State and bagged a 97-38 win over the opponents.

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However, Bueckers did go through some painful injuries in her career. Let’s take a look at them.

Injuries suffered by Bueckers

As Bueckers has grown her role as one of the successful players in college women’s basketball, she also suffered from a lot of pain in between, courtesy of her injuries. Her first one came around during her sophomore season when she was in the closing seconds of a matchup against Notre Dame. She had twisted her left leg while she was dribbling up that court and suddenly went down sustaining a tibia plateau fracture and torn meniscus. Although the Huskies won the game, however, the landscape turned painful with her sudden injury.

The next one came in August 2022, during a pickup game, she tore the ACL in her left knee. Notably, she was having trouble with leg movement as a result of her previous injury due to which she stayed out of action for three months in the 2021-22 season.

Paige spent her second season away from the court due to several other injuries. However, to fully recover, she had to undergo surgery. Fortunately, the surgery went successfully, however, she was not given proper clearance for any full-contact basketball activity until May.

But the Husky strived to recover. Although under observation, she started playing some basketball and also did some shooting and different drills. “Where I’m at now, I’ve been able to do a lot more basketball. And that’s lit a new spark under me, to see myself getting closer and cutting and shooting and going through drills at practice. I’ve had many milestones along the way that have lit a new fire under me,”  she said.

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Given the tough times she went through, Paige Bueckers has broken several barriers with her resilience and strong will to achieve. And, that’s the reason why she is one 0f the top NCAA players.