UConn’s Paige Bueckers has to ‘be more selfish,’ Auriemma says
“She definitely didn’t get the ball enough and definitely didn’t play the way she had played in the tournament leading up to today,” Auriemma told reporters after the game. “There was something bothering her. I think it was physical. But she wasn’t her aggressive self.”
Asked what might have been ailing Bueckers, Auriemma said, “I don’t know. She didn’t say anything. She just had this look about her that wasn’t quite right.
“She didn’t move the way she’s been moving. … She wasn’t as active as she normally is, and that’s why I said, if we don’t get great, great games out of Aaliyah [Edwards] and Paige, it’s hard for us to score enough points to win these games.”
Bueckers — who again will surely be in the conversation as national player of the year next season — had been one of the best players in March, averaging 27.9 points, 8.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 3.1 steals and 2.6 blocks in the postseason entering the Final Four.
But she was held to 17 points on Friday, her lowest total since March 2 against Providence. It snapped her streak of seven consecutive 20-point games, the second-longest run by a UConn player in the past 25 seasons.
Bueckers’ 17 shot attempts were also her fewest since the Big East tournament semifinal, and she took just three shots in the final quarter, scoring a single 3-pointer. She had four turnovers, just the fourth game this season with that many. Auriemma pointed out that she wasn’t as active as usual on the defensive end either, failing to register a steal.
Auriemma has pushed Bueckers since she arrived on campus to be more “selfish” with the ball. Though she had done a good job of that during the NCAA tournament, taking a more assertive role on offense especially, that wasn’t the case Friday night.
“This is a great learning experience for Paige,” Auriemma said. “Paige is a patient person who waits, and I think she is going to learn, or has begun to learn, that there is no waiting at this time of the year. It’s you make it happen yourself. And you have to be more selfish.
“I know she wants to be the greatest teammate of all time, but I think those days are over and she needs to assert herself more. And normally she does — you look at all those NCAA tournament games. So the fact that she didn’t today, I think there was something going on there.”
After the game, Bueckers referenced “mistakes” she made that turned out costly.
“I could have maybe shot more shots when I was open right away on the catch,” she said. “I feel like I could have taken care of the ball better. Just little stuff like that.”
Iowa’s top defender, Gabbie Marshall, guarded Bueckers the majority of the night, but Bueckers said the way Iowa changed “the coverages and switching it up defensively, just trying to deny, I think, was good for them.”
Auriemma said he also thought Edwards “looked off” after posting 17 points on 8-for-15 shooting and eight rebounds. Bueckers, Edwards and freshman KK Arnold (14 points) were the only UConn players to hit double figures. The team also attempted only four free throws compared to Iowa’s 14.
Still, despite a suboptimal game offensively, the Huskies clawed back from a nine-point deficit with 5:42 to play and had a chance to win in the final 10 seconds, but Edwards was called for a controversial offensive foul on a play UConn ran coming out of a timeout.
“We’ve gotten this far, because we got four, five guys contributing at a real high level,” Auriemma said, “and tonight that wasn’t there and we can’t win.”
Auriemma and Bueckers maintained perspective on what the Huskies were able to accomplish amid such difficult circumstances.
UConn lost six players for the season due to injury, including star Azzi Fudd and fifth-year senior Aubrey Griffin. Bueckers dazzled in her first full season since an August 2022 ACL injury sidelined her for all of 2022-23. She played all 39 games this season, the first fully healthy campaign since her freshman year.
Seniors Edwards and Nika Muhl are both departing for the pros, and while Bueckers will return to Storrs next season, she will have a mostly young team rounded out by multiple players returning from injury.
“Definitely having two leaders like that go and me having to carry a heavy load, I’ll rely on the junior class now, Aubrey of course,” Bueckers said. “It’ll be hard. It’ll be a challenge, but at the same time, I’ve learned so much from them, from Coach, on how to be a great leader. And I just want to continue to be better at that. And so whatever challenges that presents, I want to embrace that.”
After starting the year 4-3, Bueckers and the Huskies managed to make the Final Four despite not beating a team ranked higher than No. 18 in the country during the regular season. Their Elite Eight win over 1-seed USC sent them to their 23rd national semifinal appearance and their 15th in 16 tournaments.
“I think they can hold their heads up and realize that they’d accomplished something that was pretty amazing,” Auriemma said. “I think the rest of the country, everybody who tuned in, saw the way they competed and we had Caitlin Clark play a bad game. … I’m proud of our team, but I’m pissed we lost.”