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Paige Bueckers’ long-awaited entrance into the WNBA ranks will occur on Monday night when she takes the stage as the Dallas Wings’ presumed No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft.
Bueckers’ all-time great college basketball career came to a close with a fitting end earlier this month as she and the No. 2 seed UConn Huskies routed the No. 1 seed South Carolina Gamecocks in the NCAA Tournament national championship game.
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Bueckers, 23, finishes her college basketball career with 2,439 points, 579 rebounds and 561 assists, shooting 53.1% from the field and 42.3% from behind the three-point arc.
In addition to her stellar on-court numbers, Bueckers also excelled in the classroom.
Bueckers received her bachelor’s degree in human development and family sciences from the University of Connecticut after the 2023-24 season, achieving 3.497 cumulative GPA. As a result, she was named a 2023-24 College Sports Communicators First Team Academic All-American selection.
Bueckers posted an impressive 3.9 GPA in the fall semester of her 2023-24 season, earning her 2024 BIG EAST WBB Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors.
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Bueckers was named to UConn’s Dean’s list four times during her undergraduate career.
Bueckers earned AP Player of the Year honors in her freshman season with the Huskies, but serious injury issues slowed her down after this red-hot start. This year’s championship victory marks the end of a long and arduous journey back to the top of the college basketball world.
“It was a journey of resilience, of overcoming adversity,” Bueckers said of this year’s title. “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, of keeping the faith, of working extremely hard, and I really wouldn’t trade it.”
Connecticut Huskies guard Paige Bueckers is interviewed by ESPN reporter Holly Rowe.Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
The 2025 WNBA draft will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.