UConn star Paige Bueckers announces plans to enter 2025 WNBA Draft

Paige Bueckers has had a storied college basketball career with the Connecticut Huskies. Whenever her team’s journey comes to a close in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, she’ll be heading to the WNBA, the star guard confirmed to ESPN’s Rebecca Lobo on Friday.

It’s been assumed Bueckers would move on from the college basketball world at the end of the 2024-25 season, but now it’s seemingly official. She’s averaging 19.2 points on 54.2% shooting, with 4.8 assists and 4.4 rebounds this season.

Before she heads to the WNBA, Bueckers is hoping to deliver another national title for the Huskies. They’re currently in the Sweet 16, where they’ll meet Oklahoma on Saturday. Time will tell if they can get by the Sooners and continue their chase into the Elite Eight.

The noise surrounding Bueckers has grown, as it once seemed unfeasible that she would end her time with the Huskies without a national title. Even if UConn isn’t the final team standing when the 2025 NCAA Tournament ends, the star guard’s head coach Geno Auriemma believes her legacy in the sport is secure.

“You don’t owe anybody anything,” Auriemma told Bueckers, via ESPN’s Alexa Philippou per Sports Illustrated. “And if you don’t play another game ever at the University of Connecticut, you’ve given them way more than they bargained for when you got here, regardless of what anybody thinks.

“Because if you are (happy with yourself), your life is going to be fantastic, whether you ever leave here with a national championship or you don’t. And if you’re not happy with yourself and you win a national championship, that ain’t gonna make you happier. It’ll make a lot of people around you happier, but ain’t gonna make you happier.”

Throughout her time in college basketball, Bueckers has overcome a number of obstacles, including a de-habilitating knee injury. Regardless, she’s been part of a renaissance for women’s college basketball, and women’s sports as a whole, helping usher in a new era for many of her peers. Was she the face of the movement? No, but she’s played a major role, and there’s something to be said about that.

Despite their greatness year-in and year-out, UConn will miss Paige Bueckers when she moves on to the WNBA, as she’s been the face of the program over the past couple of seasons. They have a shot to send her out on top, will they be able to do it? It’ll all come to a head over the next couple of weeks.