“It’s a team accomplishment”: Paige Bueckers blushes while expressing gratitude after accepting 2025 Wade Trophy

UConn star Paige Bueckers has been one of the most dominant players at the 2025 NCAA Tournament, stringing together three consecutive 30.0+ point games. She has led the No. 2-seeded Huskies to the Final Four, where they will face the No. 1-seeded UCLA Bruins on Saturday evening for a shot at the national championship game.

On Thursday, Bueckers was named the 2025 Wade Trophy winner, which is given to the WBCA’s NCAA Division I Player of the Year. She's the seventh Huskies player to win it. Breanna Stewart was the last UConn player to win it (2015 and 2016).

While accepting the award, the popular Bueckers instead deflected the praise for the win to her teammates and the UConn staff.

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"First of all, thank you to everybody who voted for me," Paige Bueckers said. "It is very fitting that my team is here and the coaching staff is here. I guess it's an individual award, but it wouldn't be possible without the teammates. Everybody around me who helps me.

"The strength and conditioning staff, my doctors. Everybody from top to bottom, managers, practice players, graduate assistants. So many people contribute to individual awards. It's really a team accomplishment. So, extremely grateful, extremely blessed so thank you to everyone."

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Paige Bueckers deals with national championship pressure

Big things have been expected of Paige Bueckers ever since she committed to the UConn Huskies in 2020 as the No. 1 recruit in the country. Winning the National Player of the Year as a freshman largely justified the expectations before her college basketball career was derailed by two season-ending injuries.

The one thing that has eluded Bueckers during her illustrious UConn career, where she has been inducted into the Huskies of Honor roll is a national championship that her predecessors, including Breanna Stewart and Diana Tauras,i all won.

During his pregame news conference before the Huskies face the No. 1-seeded UCLA Bruins, UConn coach Geno Auriemma made a declaration, attempting to remove the pressure from Buecker's shoulders.

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"You don't owe anybody anything," Auriemma told Bueckers. "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."

In her own press conference, Paige Bueckers put the pressure back on herself and the team to win the natty this year by revealing that anything less would be a failure.

In her five-year UConn career, Paige Bueckers has never had a stronger support system than she has now, with the talents of the returning Azzi Fudd and poised freshman Sarah Strong.

After beating the South Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia in February, the Huskies have been unstoppable, leading to the Big Dance Final Four and Buecker's last dance.

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