STORRS, Conn. _ If you thought the pressure on UConn 2020 signee Paige Bueckers was already high, Geno Auriemma upped it a notch when discussing his incoming point guard after Sunday's win over Notre Dame.
"I am going to be saying, 'You know what, we wouldn't have won the national championship without her,' " Auriemma said about what he expects to be saying about Bueckers by the end of her freshman year.
"By herself, she can't win anything. But with the people I think we are going to surround her with, I think we can do great things."
The Eden Prairie, Minn., product signed her National Letter of Intent with the Huskies last month. As the top recruit of the 2020 class, Bueckers became the 11th No. 1 recruit to sign with UConn since 1998 (not including Elena Delle Donne, who signed with the Huskies but transferred shortly after arriving on campus).
Other No. 1 prospects from high school to play in Storrs include Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, Maya Moore, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Breanna Stewart, and Katie Lou Samuelson, along with current Huskies Megan Walker and Christyn Williams.
On Tuesday, Bueckers was named the 2019 USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year. The future Husky participated in four USA Basketball events this year, and was named tournament MVP at the FIBA U19 World Cup.
Highlight reels of Bueckers' nifty ball-handling moves, and undeniable swagger, pop up on Twitter and Instagram almost weekly. In a recent interview with SLAM, Bueckers noted how people have already started comparing her game to Taurasi's but "just being able to be the first Paige Bueckers, that's what I want."
"This kid was meant to be a basketball player," Auriemma said of Bueckers. "She was born to be a basketball player. She just plays like 'this is my personal playground. When I get the ball, I can do whatever I want with it, and you can't stop me. And I just have fun with it.'
"She makes the game fun for herself. And when she is not playing basketball, she is watching basketball. And when she isn't watching basketball, she is shooting baskets. There are kids who play basketball, and then there are basketball players. She is a basketball player. Born to be a basketball player. Everything she does. She's a natural."
The hype surrounding Bueckers is real, but realistically so may be her ups and downs as a freshman _ Auriemma pointed to the early struggles that various UConn greats went through before coming into their own, not to mention the outside pressure to be great.
"She is going to be under a lot of pressure," Auriemma said. "She is going to be under the same kind of pressure (Stewart) was, the same kind of pressure (Taurasi) was. A kid coming out of high school that is supposed to be all-everything, God's gift to everything, and she is going to have to live with that every single day. That is not easy for a kid."
"When (Stewart) was a freshman, she took that hard, because the game was so easy in November and everybody was like, 'Damn, this kid is the like second coming.' Until reality set in and it was like, 'Damn, this is going to really hard.' Paige is in for that. The expectations for her are going to be through the roof. She is going to be great, and she is going to struggle. Look how many struggles (Taurasi) had as a freshman. (Stewart). Rebecca (Lobo). Everyone."
By the way, the only freshman in Auriemma's eyes to not go through such vicissitudes? Maya Moore.
"Maya is the only freshman who came here (snaps his finger), 'Got this.' ... First day of practice, you knew: best player in the country. She hadn't even practiced yet. "
But Bueckers will have a strong cast of players around her next year that should make UConn a force to be reckoned with: Just looking at upperclassmen alone, Walker, who so far this season is arguably having an All-American year, will be a senior, Williams and Olivia Nelson-Ododa will be even more experienced juniors, and transfer Evina Westbrook will be eligible.
The pieces may be coming together to fulfill Auriemma's goal of making UConn "bad for basketball again:" Bueckers is one of five signees in UConn's 2020 recruiting class, which is ranked No. 2 in the country behind Oregon's. Bueckers will be joined by No. 21 Mir McLean, No. 26 Aaliyah Edwards, Croatian prospect Nika Muhl, and 6-foot-5 center Piath Gabriel. UConn also has two verbal commits for 2021 in Amari DeBerry (No 5) and Saylor Poffenbarger (No. 17).
Bueckers was in attendance for UConn's 81-57 blowout of Notre Dame alongside DeBerry and two other 2021 targets for UConn: No. 1 Azzi Fudd, Bueckers' close friend, and No. 41 Caroline Ducharme.
