Paige Bueckers shares how she wants to be remembered at UConn

Paige Bueckers will get her swan song as UConn goes for the national title against South Carolina Sunday afternoon. As far as how she wants to be remembered? It’s all about the team.

Bueckers seems destined for a great WNBA career at this point. Over the course of his Huskies’ career, she’s been an electric scorer when she’s been on the court.

But perhaps Bueckers might be remembered as a great teammate, getting the best out of the women next to her on the court. That’s the way she wants it.

“As a great teammate, a great leader,” Bueckers said. “I think those are the two most important things to me, just being somebody that people love to play with, make their teammates better, wears a UConn jersey with pride. Every single time I stepped on the floor I gave it my all and played with energy, effort, passion and joy that was contagious, not just amongst my teammates but in the entire UConn community.

“Giving back to the community was also a huge thing for me, just giving to people who have given so much to me. And just being an inspiration as much as I’ve had adversity throughout my career, a person who was resilient and just bounced back from everything that life threw its way and a winner and a competitor and just a person who played with all my heart.”

If Bueckers can achieve what she mentioned, perhaps the result of this game will be different. UConn lost to South Carolina in the 2022 title game 64-49.

“Yeah, I think everything in life has kind of taught me not to take things for granted,” Bueckers said. “Being in the national championship game, it’s extremely hard to get to and extremely rewarding to be a part of. And just how much we need to play 40 minutes and how connected we need to stay throughout the game. It’s going to be a game of runs. It’s extremely high stakes. There will be nerves at the beginning.

“But once you settle in, staying connected, staying composed and doing what got us there, not trying to get too outside of ourselves and try to win the game in one possession but play every possession by itself and take it possession by possession.”

Bueckers and UConn take on the South Carolina Gamecocks in the women’s national title game at 3:00 p.m. ET on ABC.