Inside Paige Bueckers' remarkable 2,000 point achievement
Auriemma: 'I'm sure there's a few more points in her future'
With a signature midrange jumper at the 8:05 minute mark of the second quarter against Seton Hall on Sunday, Paige Bueckers scored her 2,000th collegiate point — becoming just the 12th player in Husky history to reach that mark. By achieving the milestone in her 102nd career game, she passed Maya Moore (108 games) as the fastest in program history to get there.
"I was hoping I would get it at some point," Bueckers said when asked about the milestone. "I knew I was six points away [going into Sunday’s game], so eventually, hopefully I would get there. I didn't want to press, I didn't want to force the issue and just let it happen naturally within the game flow and continue to play the right way, look for my teammates, look for my shot, play UConn basketball, and what's supposed to happen will happen."
The feat, remarkable in itself, is even more impressive considering how Bueckers’ UConn career has unfolded. The 6’ guard arrived in Storrs in 2020 as one of the program’s most hyped recruits in history. While a high schooler, the Hopkins, Minnesota, native was named the 2019 USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year, 2019-20 Gatorade Female Athlete of the Year as well as a McDonald’s, SLAM, and Jordan Brand Classic All-American. As a high school senior she graced the cover of SLAM Magazine, one of just a handful of high school athletes to ever be featured on the cover.
The freshman phenom’s season at UConn was far from typical — taking place in empty arenas due to COVID social distancing restrictions. Despite the emotional and physical challenges of competing during a pandemic, Bueckers established herself as not only the best freshman in the country but the best player in the country. Starting and appearing in 29 games, Bueckers became the first freshman to earn the Wooden Award, Naismith Trophy, AP Player of the Year and USBWA Player of the Year honors. She propelled UConn to the Final Four bubble in San Antonio, where the young Huskies fell to an upstart underdog Arizona team led by scrappy senior guard Aari McDonald.
In the summer between Bueckers’ freshman and sophomore seasons, new NCAA rules went into effect that allowed players to monetize their name, image, and likeness (NIL). To kick off her sophomore campaign, the reigning national player of the year signed her first major NIL deal, with the StockX e-commerce platform. Her star was poised to ascend. Then, in the waning moments of a December 2021 rivalry game victory against Notre Dame at Gampel Pavilion, Bueckers collapsed to the floor with a non-contact left knee injury while bringing the ball up the court.
Following the injury, Bueckers missed nearly two full months of her sophomore season to a tibial plateau fracture and a partially torn meniscus, returning for the final two games of the season and postseason play. It was clear in her return that she wasn’t 100%, which made it even more impressive that she again led the Huskies to the Final Four. This time, they’d fall to a stacked South Carolina squad in Bueckers’ hometown of Minneapolis.
In a devastating turn of events, Bueckers tore her ACL in August of 2022 during a game of pick-up at UConn’s practice facility. She missed the entirety of the 2022-23 season due to the injury, and struggled through an emotional season of watching her teammates from the bench. Although she kept a positive public persona, her time away from the game was heartbreaking for her.
Last season as a senior Bueckers and the Huskies did what they’ve done in each NCAA Tournament for which Bueckers has competed in — advance to the Final Four. A short-handed, injury-ridden Huskies team didn’t have enough to win a 12th title, falling to Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the national semifinal in Cleveland.
Considering the trials and tribulations Bueckers has endured during her time in college — an unprecedented COVID-impacted freshman season and a devastating string of injuries — she still lived up to the hype and will leave UConn with at least one record all to herself — fastest to 2,000 points.
"To be able to put that many points on the board in that short period is one tremendous accomplishment," coach Geno Auriemma said. "To be able to do it in spite of the ups and downs and missing an entire season and a [half] of another season, to stay mentally locked in, to stay positive, and to still be committed to putting the work in, there's a lot that goes into being able to be out there and make the shots that she makes given what she's been through.”
"I don't know too many people that work at the game as hard and as often as she does, so I'm glad that she's being rewarded. And I'm sure there's a few more points in her future.
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Each season the Huskies have had a healthy Paige Bueckers for the NCAA Tournament, they’ve advanced to the Final Four. In her final season in Storrs, the Huskies hope to reach that feat once more. For some, that will be the barometer by which Bueckers’ legacy at UConn will be measured. As Auriemma cautions, though, that’s not necessarily the appropriate metric to evaluate her time at UConn.
"This notion that you have to win a national championship or multiple national championships to be considered a generational type player or amazing type player, there are a lot of great players that have had amazing careers that have never won a national championship. They have never been to a Final Four. You can't use that as a gauge for where she would be," Auriemma said in a recent press availability.
"My thought process is, 'How much did she dominate the college basketball world during the four years that she played here?”
TEE BAKER is a regular contributor to the Hoops Capital of the World. You can also find Tee’s work at The Next, where they have been since March Madness 2021 and currently serve as a contributing editor, BIG EAST beat reporter, and curator of historical deep dives