For the last year and a half UConn fans have been waiting with bated breath for the arrival of the Next Big Deal: Paige Bueckers (who we shall heretofore be referring to as Paige Buckets because obviously).
The hype surrounding Paige has been absurd. The first female high school basketball player to make the cover of Slam. Cameras following her senior year. Even with all the talent who has walked through the doors of Gampel Pavilion, no one has ever been as heralded before they played a single minute in national flag blue.
People compare her game and her drive to Diana Taurasi, and it’s obvious why. Both possess an otherworldly court vision and an ability to make the people around them better. You can see the similarities in their handle, their passing ability and their nose for the basket.
But despite those similarities, Paige has an even bigger task in front of her than freshman DT had. Diana joined a UConn squad loaded with veteran talent and didn’t make her way into the starting line up until an injury sidelined Svetlana Abrosimova. Paige is playing for a team with no seniors, whose default leader, Christyn Williams, is coming off a down year. Is this going to be Williams’s team, or is the Paige Buckets Era starting on Day One? I think we got our answer last night.
At the end of the third quarter with only seconds on the clock and UConn inbounding under their own basket, Geno called a simple play: give it to Paige and get out of her way. Paige Buckets took it coast to coast, losing her man on a screen set by a brick wall in the form of Aaliyah Edwards, evading defenders and taking it straight to the hole for the and-one.
It was gorgeous. Perfectly executed. The kind of play you could have imagined Diana Taurasi or Sue Bird making as upperclassmen. The maturity of Paige’s game is truly something to behold.
And look, I know there are some fans of other programs who salty about all the attention Paige is getting. And I get it. I really do. But Iowa ain’t Connecticut, and it really isn’t as impressive as what we’ve seen from the most-hyped player to come to Storrs since Breanna Stewart. Paige Buckets is a ludicrous 19-25 (76%) from the floor in her first two games. She’s complemented those 42 points with 13 rebounds, 10 assists, and 7 steals. Just ludicrous stats. To quote the eloquent Geno: “She’s just good. Some people are just good. She’s just good.”
It does feel a bit like we’re talking about Paige Buckets and the Good Freshmen. An unquestionable lead with a talented backing band, but that really doesn’t do the rest of these players justice.
The aforementioned Edwards has already shown that she is a strong, tough, physical presence in the post, something UConn has been sorely lacking in recent years. In just her first few minutes as a college player, Edwards committed an offensive foul under the basket that let everybody know she is not here to screw around. You truly do love to see it.
I don’t want my praise of Edwards to sound like a footnote in the Annals of Paige Buckets, because her play has been tremendous in these first two match ups. She’s got great hands, great footwork, moves really well in the lane, and can get up and down the floor in transition. She just hoovers up offensive boards. And she’s strong. Hoo boy is she strong. We will not be seeing our girl Aaliyah getting pushed around in the post.
Edwards also seems to be avoiding the Curse of the Freshmen Bigs, and has so far not appeared to be foul prone. Her success is unsurprising given she spent time playing with the Canadian National Team. Anyone coming in after a stint with a national team is going to be at another level. Filling such a huge need for UConn, and filling it well, was more than we could have hoped for this early.
But wait, there’s more! Nika Muhl and Mir McClean have also shown some real promise as well. The Croatian Muhl is making the adjustment from playing in Europe and the overzealous reffing here in women’s college basketball. (Sorry about that Nika, we think it sucks, too.) But Nika has a nose for the ball on defense, and she seems ready to fill that Ricky Moore-type role of skilled ball hawk and general defensive menace while also giving UConn another ball handler and passer.
That extra defensive presence in the guard position will be valuable, because that is the one thing that Paige Buckets isn’t already doing at an elite level. (I predict there will be at least one game where Geno is Very Mad at Paige about defense and Nika will get her minutes.) There’s always going to be a weird adjustment period for someone coming from playing that sorta-pro-European ball to playing in college in the States and I have full faith that Nika will get there, just as Anna Makurat did last year.
Mir McClean has been a bit of a surprise. We heard about her athleticism, likened to Aubrey Griffin, but I was impressed by her energy and her tenacity on the boards. In only four minutes against a feisty Seton Hall, McClean scored five points and grabbed two rebounds. In 11 minutes against UMass-Lowell, she had 10 points and six rebounds. She’s one of the most determined rebounders I can recall, just stubbornly refusing to let anyone else get her rebounds. Or, as BardMom says, “she plays like her hair’s on fire.” I’m looking forward to Mir providing that spark off the bench this season.
And not to leave out Piath Gabriel, who has only played about six minutes so far this season. She’s definitely got some raw talent (emphasis on raw) but there’s promise there. She looks like she needs a lot more reps (there was one possession against UMass-Lowell where Paige tried to send her a no-look pass and, well, Piath wasn’t looking either). Piath is definitely a project, but it’s abundantly clear why Geno decided to take her on: she’s got size and athleticism and just needs a firm hand to guide her. CD will have her work cut out for her, but she’s done far more with far less.
Also shout to walk-on Autumn Chassion who got her first minutes against Seton Hall and recorded both an assist and a rebound. She was thisclose to hitting a three that would surely have sent the bench into fits of ecstasy.
Anyway, this is all just a very, very long way of saying these freshmen are exciting as hell. Paige Buckets is as good as advertised (maybe even better???) and we’re only two games in! What is this sorcery?! (It’s Geno and CD. They do be like that.)
While the second quarter against Seton Hall was rough, overall we’ve seen a more cohesive squad than I expected to see, given the youth and lack of playing time due to the dreaded rona. There is also something very pleasant about having a league game against a team that doesn’t just roll over the moment UConn steps on the floor. (For real, props to Seton Hall and especially Lauren Park-Lane who had just an absurd game herself.)
This season is going to be weird and disjointed, but I will be grateful for every moment of basketball I get to watch. It’s Paige Buckets szn.
