Paige Bueckers announces plans to return to UConn for one more season

Paige Bueckers has made her decision on the 2024 WNBA Draft – and it’s a big one. She’s returning to UConn next season, she announced Friday night.

Bueckers has spent four years with the Huskies, but has one more available via the COVID-19 waiver. She’s also a projected top-five pick in this year’s WNBA Draft, which added to the decision she had to make about her future.

Friday night, as she took the microphone to address the crowd, Bueckers shared her plans to run it back in 2024-25 for one final go-round.

"Unfortunately this will not be my last Senior NIght"

PAIGE BUECKERS WILL RETURN TO STORRS NEXT YEAR! pic.twitter.com/0F9hS04Rof

— UConn on SNY (@SNYUConn) February 17, 2024

“Obviously, this four years didn’t go how I planned or how I wanted to go, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” Bueckers said. “I wouldn’t be able to get through what I went through without everybody here supporting. So, thank you to the best fans in the country. I know everybody wants me to address the elephant in the room.

“Unfortunately, this will not be my last senior night here at UConn because I’m coming back. … Thank you guys, we love you. We still need your support the rest of the season, and we’ll see you soon.”

Bueckers burst onto the scene as a freshman at UConn in 2020-21, winning National Player of the Year as she averaged 20 points, 4.9 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 2.3 steals over 29 games. Her numbers dipped a bit as a sophomore as she appeared in 17 games and averaged 14.6 points over that time.

Then, Bueckers sat out her entire junior season after suffering a knee injury, and she made her return to the court this year for UConn and is back to her 2020-21 levels. Through 20 games entering Friday night, she’s averaging 20 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.2 steals this season.

Paige Bueckers will return to UConn as one of women’s basketball’s most recognizable players

In ESPN’s most recent WNBA mock draft last month, Michael Voepel projected Bueckers to go to the Phoenix Mercury with the No. 3 overall selection. Since then, Phoenix traded that pick to the Chicago Sky along with a slew of other picks in exchange for Kahleah Copper.

Off the court, Bueckers is one of the most recognizable names in women’s basketball and is capitalizing in the NIL space. She has an On3 NIL Valuation of $652,000, which puts her at No. 67 in the On3 NIL 100 – the first of its kind and defacto NIL ranking of the top 100 high school and college athletes ranked by their On3 NIL Valuation. She also checks in at No. 5 in the On3 College Basketball NIL Rank.

In January, Bueckers signed an NIL deal with the UConn NIL Store and, in November 2023, was a headliner on Dunkin’s Team Dunkin’ NIL campaign.