With her iconic braids, insane talent for basketball, and many remarkable accomplishments, Hopkins high school graduate Paige Bueckers, or Paige “Buckets” as many call her, has made waves throughout the sports world. On April 5, 2025, she helped lead UConn to a sweeping victory in the NCAA championship game over South Carolina, an elite team that had previously defeated UConn in the 2022 championship game and went undefeated and won the national title in 2024. Viewership for this game was unprecedented, with an average of 8.5 million viewers, and it peaked at 9.9 million viewers on ABC, marking the third largest viewership of the women’s tournament ESPN has seen since 1996. Playing all but 2 minutes of the game, Bueckers had 17 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. Her teammates Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong also came in clutch for the team, and the three of them scored 65 points combined. Over the course of the 2024-2025 season, Bueckers became the only player in the history of college basketball, NBA, and WNBA to shoot 50/40/90, meaning she went 50% from the field, 40% from the 3-point line, and 90% from the free throw line. Her career was jumbled with injury, such as a tibial plateau fracture and lateral meniscus tear her sophomore year and an ACL tear her junior year, but she definitely came back better than ever. In a Today Show interview after the championship win, she told interviewers that “It was a journey of resilience, of overcoming adversity. I wouldn’t trade it for the world, just because it became such a beautiful story and a remarkable journey of ups and downs, highs and lows, keeping the faith, working extremely hard.”
As Bueckers graduates from UConn this year, many speculators are watching for her next moves. She ended up as the #1 overall draft pick in the WNBA, which the Dallas Wings held. She grew up rooting for the Lynx, and she told Today that “I was just a little girl, aspiring to be in the league…and to be able to share that experience and be able to be a part of that, it’s surreal to say.” However she performs in the future, it is certain that Paige Bueckers will continue to be an inspiration in women’s sports and beyond.
