Can 6-foot Paige Bueckers dunk?
Paige Bueckers has established herself as one of the top players in women's college basketball today. After an incredible redshirt junior season, fans across the nation thought she would take the natural next step and declare for this year's WNBA draft. However, she forewent the opportunity to go pro and opted to play another season with the UConn Huskies.
Bueckers has earned the nickname "Paige Buckets" thanks to her incredible consistency in scoring for the Huskies. In the past, the 6-foot guard has shown that she can dunk, doing so in an Overtime challenge four years ago when Kyree Walker called her out to try one of his signature dunks.
However, a knee injury in her sophomore season and a subsequent ACL injury which kept her out of the 2022-23 season seem to have impacted her vertical. During a conversation with Azzi Fudd last year, Bueckers wished she could improve her vertical by 10 inches so that she could experience the feeling of dunking during a game.
"If I add 10 inches to my vert, I'm dunking," Bueckers said. "In my prime, I could grab rim. So, if I add 10 inches, it's over. Alley-oops, between the legs, everything. That's, like, one feeling I just wish I could have. Just dunking in the game. I wanna feel that and, like, throwing up an alley-oop to somebody and turning up."
Paige Bueckers motivated to win national championship in her final season of college basketball
Touted as one of the top picks in the 2025 WNBA draft, this is likely to be Paige Bueckers' last season in college basketball. She is eager to cap off one of the most successful college basketball careers in history by winning the only title that has eluded her thus far: the coveted national championship.
Last season, despite the Huskies' being hit by a plethora of injuries, Paige Bueckers powered them to the second Final Four appearance of her career. There, their season met its heartbreaking end at the hands of Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes in a 71-69 loss.
While the national championship may not define her incredible college basketball career, winning it could cement the Huskies' No. 5 as one of the greatest players in program history.
Although she cannot really dunk, Bueckers' immaculate ability to knock shots down from almost anywhere on the court will be a major problem to her opposition not just in college basketball this season, but possibly the WNBA in the future.