IT'S A CRISP, sunny October afternoon, and Paige Bueckers is at the door of the holiest of basketball temples. She sees her reflection in the glass as she pulls open the door to the Werth Family UConn Basketball Champions Center. The brick edifice stands in stark contrast to the concrete behemoth of its next-door neighbor -- and UConn's home arena -- Gampel Pavilion. The Champions Center is the house that Auriemma built.
The first things Bueckers sees are 15 crystal basketball trophies on display. Thirteen of them glitter behind a wall of glass; the remaining two -- from the most recent men's and women's championships -- rest in their own cases just inside the door. Eleven of these trophies belong to the women's program.
Dynastic greatness gleams at Bueckers with each step she takes through the facility. In front of the stairs that lead up to head coach Geno Auriemma's office are the "Pillars of the Program" -- rectangular glass displays for some of the players who have walked through these same doors: Rebecca Lobo, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart. All of them All-Stars. Most of them Hall of Famers -- and the ones who aren't yet will be.
The expectations are inescapable. Hanging above the hardwood practice floor are banners for each of the 11 championships. Different banners, these ones bearing the names of high-achieving Huskies, paint two of the remaining walls.
Beginning in October, Bueckers will commune with those names every day for four years.
As the top recruit in her class, Bueckers will be taking her ankle-breaking talents to Storrs, Connecticut, next season. She's the third top-ranked prospect to choose UConn in four seasons, on the heels of her future teammates Christyn Williams and Megan Walker. Bueckers has the traditional bona fides of a high school standout -- she has won a state championship, is averaging 21.2 points, 9.5 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 4.8 steals per game this season, and has been named as a McDonald's All American. She is a two-time winner of the Gatorade Minnesota Girls Basketball Player of the Year award. She has racked up awards for USA Basketball. She has won gold medals as a member of under-19 and U17 FIBA World Cup teams. After being named the MVP of the 2019 FIBA World Cup in Bangkok, Bueckers was named the 2019 Female Athlete of the Year by USA Basketball.
She is, by universal consensus, the real deal -- the next in the long list of greats with the hope of parlaying high school dominance into another piece of UConn's navy-and-white dynasty.
There's just one problem: That dynasty isn't what it used to be.
In other words, she's joining a dynasty that she'll bear the expectations of rebuilding -- although she ultimately might not bear that burden alone. If Paige Bueckers gets her way, her best friend will do it with her.
SINCE WINNING ITS first championship in 1995, UConn, by every measure, has been not only the best women's college program in history but arguably the greatest program in the history of sports. Eleven national championships, including three consecutive (2002-04) and four consecutive (2013-16), 22 All-Americans, and six players named Naismith National Players of the Year a combined total of 10 times. The program owns the record for the longest win streak -- 111 games -- in basketball history (men's or women's).
Six of the 12 members of the 2012 Olympic team were Huskies. So were five of the 12 in Rio. Only LSU and Tennessee had multiple representatives on the 2012 team, and just LSU did in 2016.
0 Comments