NCAAW: How will Paige Bueckers’ last ride in a UConn jersey end?

In the flurry of NCAA Tournament storylines, one stands out: Paige Bueckers and her quest for a national championship.

In a college career that was unfortunately interrupted several times by injuries, Bueckers has only reached the national championship game one time. That was in 2022, when UConn lost to South Carolina. Fast forward to 2025, and she has one last chance to check off the achievement before going pro.

When you think about the biggest stars to come out of UConn, it’s rare to see any that didn’t win at least one national championship. Breanna Stewart won four, never finishing a season without the honor. Yet, as the women’s college basketball landscape sees more and more parity, it’s harder for these legacy teams to win than it ever has been.

Now, it’s not like you need a national championship to be considered an elite player. Caitlin Clark made the national championship game twice with Iowa, losing to LSU and South Carolina, and her legacy has not been tarnished. Still, if you’d ask Caitlin herself, I’m sure she would love to have that title on her resume.

This may also be UConn’s best shot at the trophy since Bueckers stepped on campus. Her freshman season was phenomenal, and she won both National Player of the Year and National Freshman of the Year—yet UConn lost in the Final Four. The next year, Bueckers missed half the season with an injury and was never at 100 percent, but the Huskies still made it all the way to the title game. The year after that, Paige sat out recovering from her ACL injury (the same injury JuJu Watkins just recently suffered), and UConn was eliminated in the Sweet 16. In 2024, the Huskies had a good shot at making it to the end, but Azzi Fudd was still recovering from her own ACL injury. UConn fell in the Final Four to Clark’s Iowa.

It’s now Paige’s redshirt senior season, and she’s playing better than ever. She has recorded a 50/40/90 season (50 percent shooting from the field, 40 percent from 3, 90 percent from the free throw line) and is the only player in NCAA, NBA or WNBA history to do so while also leading the sport in assist-to-turnover ratio. Azzi Fudd also is back, and is reaching her potential after dealing with injuries for a lot of her own career. It seems like UConn is finally healthy enough to go into this last stretch of the tournament at full strength.

It certainly will not be easy though. The Huskies will start with a Sweet 16 game against Oklahoma. If they win that, they will face either Kansas State or USC, who, despite losing Watkins to her ACL injury, is still looking strong with players like Kiki Iriafen stepping up. In the Final Four, UConn could potentially face UCLA, or even LSU or NC State. Going up against Lauren Betts would be a challenge for anyone, and UConn would definitely need to be at their best. Finally, they are on a collision course to face South Carolina in the national championship again, or possibly they’ll meet Notre Dame for the second time this season. UConn got their best win of the season against South Carolina in February, but Dawn Staley’s team doesn’t make the same mistakes twice.

It’s Paige’s last mountain to climb in the blue and white, and after the career she has had in the NCAA, it will be an emotional one. Luckily for fans of the sport in general, the end of this chapter of Paige Bueckers’ legacy only leads into the beginning of another exciting one as she heads into the professional world.