Paige Bueckers did not need a title to be a Uconn legend. She deserved one, however

Tampa, Florida – With 1:32 to play in the fourth quarter, while snuggling with his teammates during a stop in play, Paige Bueckers heard his name entitled. She was Uconn’s first -year student combined Ziebell, and she put a towel from her superstar teammate.

It was not a survey of surrender. But that of fulfillment. A rest towel, representing peace resulting from a well -done work. Bueckers caught it and headed for the Huskies bench. His face softens, his disposition has relaxed. She saw the embrace of the waiting completion.

“So many emotions,” said Bueckers. “Gratitude was the main – of travel, ups and downs, everything you needed to get to this point.”

Geno Auriemma, his coach, his Sensei, his defender, often the spine by his side, now and forever bark in his conscience, has become the heat at the end of an epic journey. Her arms wrapping around her in a triumphant embrace gave Bueckers permission to stop and feel the reward for her work.

For this moment, if only for this moment, she could deposit the plow. His Huskies were only moments of a confetti shower after the postponement of South Carolina on Sunday 82-59. She could turn off the burning fire. She could drop her stature her stature and renown requires erection. She could abandon any doubt and concern nestled in the crevices of her psyche.

Because she did it. In his last match with Uconn – in the presence of Huskies icons such as Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart in the stands – Bueckers has become a national champion.

And in front of a closed window crowds in Amalie Arena, before a million more people elsewhere, she let everything left. She tightened Auriemma tight, releasing all the energy that a superstar must carry, while her tears fell on the shoulder of her coach.

While she is sobbing, Auriemma told her leader that he loved her.

“There are times when she and I are very, very serious together,” he said. “And many serious conversations have taken place over the past five years between the two of us. Some conversations are light and fun and do not mean anything. But today, it is the first, I think, in five years that all the emotions that have been built in me have come out.

And in this touching display, while the world of basketball had melted with their shared affection, one of the largest auriemma never trained responded.

“And I told him,” said Bueckers, “I hated him.”

Bueckers deserved this moment. She won this moment. But the truth is that she didn’t need this moment.

Paige Bueckers shared a long hug with Geno Auriemma while she checked her last university basketball game 🫂 pic.twitter.com/jz9jm630hu

– Athletics (@Theathletic) April 6, 2025

In another universe where the gamecocks have played the game of their life and upset Uconn, the reality of his supremacy remains unchanged. A title will undoubtedly add to its legend. But Bueckers was already legendary.

Because, really, the winners are not defined by the victories, but by the desire to produce them. And the winning character inevitably reveals.

The biggest victory in Bueckers, the most significant of her undeniable heritage, is the way she manages the weight of her crown. What she emanates from the pedestal on which she is perched. Its greatness is graceful. She knows how to shine while diverting it and how to merge character and competitiveness.

We cannot forget the era in which she is. She brought the burden of the UCONN standard when her domination had never been more attacked. She led the Huskies to the Four Fours, sandwiched around an LCA injury which cost her a season, at a time proliferated with great stars and programs.

However, the same reason why Bueckers did not need a national championship is exactly the reason why she now has one. Because the package of his game is Elite. She is a versatile playmaker who has an impact on the defensive. She competes with ferocity contradicting her pleasure. It can dominate a game with its skills or control it with its intangible assets.

“Phenomenal player. Certainly,” said Bree Hall, the first defender of Southern Caroline who made sure with the best of the match during her four seasons.

“Capiste towards her. She is a great player. She arrives at her blows. She knows how to open. … She definitely did the thing today. I can’t wait to have the opportunity to compete with her in the W (NBA) – or perhaps being in the same team.”

The original idea behind the word legend was a reference to things to read. In the 14th century, with literacy the skill of some chosen, something had to be worthy of being written and was written to be read. When something happened, when something was important, it was recorded in one way or another to be transmitted. So that others can read and know.

Bueckers’ journey is written. The phenomenon of the Lycée de St. Louis Park, Minnesota, who announced his arrival in the first March Madness Pandemic with a stellar game in empty gymnasiums. Who returned from a knee injury to lead Uconn in the match for the title in the second year – only to miss the following season with an ACL tear. Who returned with revenge, with an average of 21.9 career points in his junior season, which ended with a classic duel against Caitlin Clark. Who managed a young team without an elite player as a co-star during a title race which, with hindsight, was surprisingly dominant.

After losing in Tennessee on February 6, Uconn succeeded in 16 consecutive victories with an average margin of 32.1 points. The closest to any team was the 14 -point defeat of the USC against the Huskies in the Elite Eight.

“It was a story of resilience, gratitude, adversity, to overcome adversity,” said Bueckers. “You just have to respond to the challenges of life and try to feed them to make me a better person, a better player and continue to grow in my leadership capacities and to be a great teammate and to stay who I am. … I would not exchange it for the world. To be shaped, to be the person I am today and the team we are today. And obviously, you have kept the faith.

The story of Uconn, the story of the emergence of female basketball, cannot be told without Bueckers. And it was unequivocal worthy to say it. It is a large part of all time in one of the major sports programs in history. It is a pillar in the women’s basketball revolution. It’s a baller baller.

None of this can even be questioned now because Bueckers sees the ultimate price. But it was a confirmation and not a validation. His UCONN racing culminating in a championship is the bottle of bottle candles in the celebration of his career.

That said, she clearly wanted it. Judging by the way she played, she wanted it badly.

Bueckers managed a Huskies owned team. UCONN suffered a Gamecocks Limited attack in the options and has widened the aggressive defense of the reigning champion. When the Huskies saw the South Carolina flee confidence and exhausted answers, they changed speed and left Dawn Staley’s women in a cloud of navy blue mist.

It was not one of the explosive performance for which Bueckers became known. But she left more fingerprints in the uprooting of this ring than a lazy burglar. She was the symphonic driver because Auriemma described her to her best. Sunday, she set a particular tone.

In the last seconds of the first quarter, the first-year striker of Gamecocks, Joyce Edwards, had a large open look of a reader and the desire of Te-Hina Paopao, but Bueckers blocked him from behind. It was the kind of extra-affort game that Uconn would do all night to leave the South Carolina playing five against eight. On the possession of the Huskies that followed, Bueckers led and put on a glass runner.

Uconn entered the second quarter of five years. The Huskies were unscathed through the tremors and what turned out to be the best blow of South Carolina.

At the end of the third quarter, his desire to win came back. With 1:45 to play and South Carolina on the ropes, Bueckers entered the trees and caught an offensive rebound. She drew a fault on the putback, in the offensive shock. What the Gamecocks thought was a stop transformed into two free throws. Bueckers applauded violently to punctuate the Hustle game.

On the defensive possession that followed, Bueckers again denounced the South Carolina. She followed the missed jumper from Raven Johnson, beating Sania Feagin to the ball. At this stage, the Gamecocks were down 18 years and their best offense was an offensive rebound. So Bueckers would not let them have it.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, desperate gamecocks accelerating the pressure, Bueckers came to curl a transfer of dribble from Sarah Strong. Azzi Fudd tried to do the same seconds before, but was hit by the assault. But the rescue of Bueckers arose as she made sure that Hall found herself on the screen. Then Bueckers stuck the rider on the outstretched hand of Chloé Kitts.

Two possessions later, after a stop, she pushed the ball into transition. She had a path to the basket, but she had a different goal in mind. Fudd was hot on Sunday. She finished with 24 points, winning the most remarkable player. Bueckers turns to Fudd on the right wing. The transfer of dribble has obtained an open look. She missed the 3, but it was a sign of drums that went for the jugular.

She found it. Connecticut obtained the offensive rebound, and Bueckers opened on a stolen door. Strong hit her in stride. Milaysia Fulwiley, the South Carolina Sports Guard, has climbed the weakness of the block. But she struck Bueckers’ arm in the process. The whistle blew, the lay-up fell, the crowd broke out and Bueckers lying flat on its back, howl and bent. His franc throw put Uconn at 29 with 7:45 to play.

10 minutes. pic.twitter.com/4qsrccgzm

– Uconn Women’s Basketball (@uconnwbb) April 6, 2025

Auriemma said Bueckers can be fascinating and exasperating. When she dominates, when she has all the elements of a team, the program, a game on a channel, it is poetry for a coach. When she ventures far from the plan, a freedom offered by her talent and her work ethics, she can make a coach crazy.

“It happened a few times today. And it’s really exasperating,” he said. “She will want to dictate, and my relationship with her was, I know what she is going to do and that’s not always what I want her to do. But I know that in the end, she always does what she thinks she has to do so that we win.”

This is why she is a legend. Because it has the audacity to take up the challenge, take up each enemy, any obstacle, the pressure of Uconn, even its emblematic coach. It is produced in a way that only legendary figures can. She has set up figures. She choreographed victories. She orchestrated moments. She delivered chills.

And when it was all over, after dedicating everything she had for five years to her beloved Uconn, Bueckers left the field with an ultimate final memory. She had given him blood. She had given him sweat.

On Sunday, finally, she made tears.

(Haut photo: C. Morgan Engel / NCAA photos via Getty Images)