Geno Auriemma pinpoints Paige Bueckers fear that Caitlin Clark has already lived.
UConn women’s basketball head coach Geno Auriemma admitted that Paige Bueckers is scared of the thought that she won’t win an NCAA championship with the Huskies.
UConn guard Paige Bueckers has achieved no shortage of success at the collegiate level – but Geno Auriemma admitted the thought of not winning a national championship still keeps her up at night.
Over 10 games this season, Bueckers is averaging 20 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.2 assists en route to commanding the Huskies to a stellar 9-1 record. Thanks to yet another dominant campaign, fans and pundits alike expect her to be a shoo-in for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, which is owned by the Dallas Wings.
Despite routinely dominating at the collegiate level when healthy, Bueckers still hasn’t managed to win a National Title with UConn. While the 23-year-old has reached the Final Four on three separate occasions, she has nothing to show for it – a harsh reality that Auriemma could be weighing on her.
“I think it scares her to leave here and be the best player ever to play at UConn without winning a national championship – that it affects your legacy a little bit,” Geno Auriemma told The Athletic. “I’ve never said that, and I don’t believe that, but I’ve gotta believe she thinks that, that she needs that to validate who she is.
“I don’t believe that that’s the ultimate identifier of what true success is.”
Auriemma is no stranger to titles himself, having won 11 NCAA National Championships and eight Naismith National Coach of the Year Awards. The 70-year-old has additionally moulded several UConn legends over a 40-year career including Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart, who won two and four NCAA titles with the Huskies, respectively.
Fortunately for Bueckers, she isn’t the only college basketball star who’s struggled to track down an elusive championship. Indiana Fever phenom Caitlin Clark never managed to win a national championship, either, despite propelling Iowa to back-to-back Final Fours.
Speaking to reporters back in April, however, Clark pushed back on the notion that her legacy would be negatively impacted if she didn’t win a title. “No, I don’t think so at all,” she began. “I’ve played basketball at this university for four years, and for it to come down to two games – and that be whether or not I’m proud of myself and proud of the way I’ve carried myself and proud of the way I’ve impacted people in their lives – I don’t think that’s a fair assessment.
“I guess going forward, and I’ve talked about this with my legacy, I don’t want my legacy to be, oh, Caitlin won x amount of games, or Caitlin scored x amount of points. I hope it’s what I was able to do for the game of women’s basketball. I hope it is the young boys and young girls that are inspired to play this sport or dream to do whatever they want to do in their lives.”
