Paige Bueckers on the brink of 2,000 points

On the second possession of Paige Bueckers’ career, she grabbed on offensive rebound, stepped towards the rim and banked in an off-balanced shot for her first points in a UConn uniform. It came against UMass Lowell in an empty Gampel Pavilion during the Covid-impacted 2020-21 season.

Four and a half years later, Bueckers is on the brink of becoming the 12th Husky to reach 2,000 career points. Needing just six points, she’s almost certain to do it on Sunday against Seton Hall — once again at Gampel Pavilion. Only this time, a sellout crowd of 10,299 is expected to be in attendance.

Yet the ever-humble Bueckers tried to deflect the attention away from herself. As she stood in front of the media, she half-jokingly asked that there be “no questions about me.” Eventually, she relented.

“I had no idea was such a big deal,” she said. “Honestly, I think when you come here, you kind of put individual milestones and achievements [aside]. Obviously, you have goals for yourself and what you want to be that year and how you can be the best version yourself for the team, but I think everybody around here is very team-oriented.”

Bueckers should get there on Sunday. In her career, she’s scored more than six points in all but three games — and the only times she failed to get there were just after she returned from a knee injury as a sophomore. Over the last two seasons, Bueckers has put up double-figures in 53 of 55 contests.

With all that in mind, Bueckers should reach 2,000 points faster than any other player in program history. Maya Moore did it in 108 games; Bueckers will take the court for her 102nd on Sunday.

Even though she prioritizes team success over individual accolades, the Minnesota native who grew up idolizing Moore on the Lynx couldn’t help but appreciate the acommplishment.

“I guess that's a pretty cool feat,” she conceded. “She was who I wanted to be like, who I saw growing up and whose shoes I wanted to fill.”

Bueckers won’t let it go to her head, though.

“Maya's got 3,000 [points in her career],” she laughed. “You look everywhere around and it’ll humble you.”

There’s a couple reasons Bueckers will beat the likes of Moore, Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi and the others to the milestone. Not only is she a supremely talented scorer like others in the 2,000 club, she’s gotten there with incredible efficiency. Bueckers is currently shooting 53.5 percent in her career, better than Taurasi (46.9), Moore (52.5) and Stewart (53.0).

“To me, the most impressive thing is she doesn't take a lot of shots to get to those numbers,” Auriemma said. “If she took the same number of shots that a player of her caliber would… she would have got here a lot quicker.”

It’s also a product of her surrounding cast — or lack thereof. Not only have injuries consistently depleted the Huskies’ roster during Bueckers’ career, she’s also only played with one other All-American: Aaliyah Edwards. That number could increase to two with Sarah Strong later this year, but it’s still far fewer than all of UConn’s other generational talents.

“We dropped Dee (Taurasi) in the middle of Asjha (Jones), Tamika (Williams), Swin (Cash), Sue (Bird) — that whole crew,” Auriemma said. “When [Nykesha Sales] was a freshman, we had three national players of the year on our team. We had Kara [Wolters], Rebecca [Lobo] and Jen [Rizzotti].”

It’s no surprise, then, that Bueckers is currently tied with Moore for the highest career scoring average in program history at 19.7 points per game. She’s also one of just three Huskies ever to put up 20.0+ points per game in two separate seasons alongside Napheesa Collier and Kerry Bascom.

On Sunday, Bueckers should have yet another impressive mark on her resume.

Bueckers’ best shots

Given the milestone Bueckers is about to hit, she was asked about her favorite baskets throughout her UConn career and highlighted three:

As a freshman, Bueckers hit a circus 3-pointer with 10 seconds left in overtime to give the Huskies a four-point lead over South Carolina. Her off-balanced shot bounced off the back rim, lofted high into the air and went through the cylinder.

Also during her freshman year, Bueckers was struggling through a rough shooting performance at Tennessee and, to make matters worse, rolled her ankle and had to leave the game in the fourth quarter. She eventually returned and beat the shot clock with a game-clinching 3-pointer in the final minute.

The last one came more recently — with far lower stakes. In UConn’s second game of the current season against North Carolina, Bueckers hit a buzzer-beating, fall-away 3-pointer at the end of the first quarter. She then stared down the Tar Heels’ bench and skipped in front of them with a mischievous grin on her face.

Injury report

Aubrey Griffin has a chance to make her season on debut on Sunday if all goes well before then, according to Auriemma.

“She’s getting there. It's getting close. She did a lot more today than she has. So we'll see tomorrow,” he said. “Depending on how things go tomorrow, there is [a chance she can play].”

Griffin has missed the first 18 games of the season while recovering from a torn ACL that she suffered on Jan. 3, 2024. While she initially wanted to be back for UConn’s New Year’s Day matchup with Marquette, that proved unrealistic. More recently, the Huskies have targeted mid-January for her return.

Even if it’s not Sunday, Griffin will be back eventually.

“She's put a lot of effort, a lot of time, a lot of work, obviously, into doing all this, and she needs to be rewarded. Somehow, some way, she has to be rewarded,” Auriemma said. “I'm grateful that she's going to get an opportunity to give it a shot, anyway. Where it is at the beginning, I don't know. But I'm sure just putting your uniform on and running up and down is a is a big deal for her right now.”