Paige Bueckers signs NIL deal with Unrivaled Basketball

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Although she still has one year left at UConn, Paige Bueckers is already preparing for her professional career. On Thursday, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that the Huskies’ star signed an NIL deal with Unrivaled, a basketball league started by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier. As part of Bueckers’ deal, she’ll receive an ownership stake in the venture and is expected to play in the league once she turns pro.

Stewart and Collier unveiled Unrivaled back in 2023 with the goal of giving WNBA players an alternative to going overseas during the offseason. The average salary will be $250,000 — more than the current WNBA max salary — and players will receive an ownership stake as well.

The inaugural campaign is set to begin this upcoming January in Miami with the likes of Stewart, Collier, Kelsey Plum, Jewell Loyd, Arike Ogunbowale and Angel Reese among the 10 players already revealed. The league will ultimately include 30 players.

Instead of traditional 5x5 basketball, Unrivaled will be a full-court version of 3x3 with six teams in total. It’ll also feature a single-elimination 1v1 tournament.

Geno Auriemma is among the league’s investors alongside Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Steve Nash, Carmelo Anthony and Ashton Kutcher among many others, including a few media moguls.

“When I first heard about it, my first reaction was: If Stewie and Pheesa think this is a great idea, and they’re willing to commit themselves, then I’m in,” Auriemma said. “Basically, it’s an investment in Pheesa and Stewie. I believe in them, and I believe that everything they do turns out good. So I wanted to be a part of it.”

Bueckers is planning on the 2024-25 season being her last at UConn. If she declares for the 2025 WNBA Draft, she’ll be the frontrunner to go No. 1 overall.

This isn’t the only notable NIL news for Bueckers this week. On Monday, it came out that she’ll be the first college athlete to receive her own custom Nike sneaker.

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UConn women’s basketball to face USC at the XL Center

UConn women’s basketball’s much-anticipated Dec. 21 matchup with the USC Trojans will be played at the XL Center, not Gampel Pavilion. The school revealed the venue in a release that announced the date of the Huskies’ trip to South Carolina on Wednesday. It’s the first home contest with a location at the moment.

While hosting the game on campus would make for a better atmosphere, the XL Center seats 5,000 more than Gampel Pavilion, allowing for more fans (and with it, ticket sales) for what will be one of the most exciting non-conference matchups in years.

The two schools just faced off in the 2024 Elite Eight, where 3-seed UConn took down top-seeded USC 80-73 to return to the Final Four. While both teams will look different — the Huskies should have a lot of players back from injury along with a strong group of newcomers while the Trojans landed a few top transfers alongside the nation’s No. 1 freshman class — the stars remain the same.

Paige Bueckers is back for her final season at UConn while USC’s JuJu Watkins will be in her second year after a standout freshman campaign. In the preseason polls, the Huskies and Trojans should be in the top three behind defending national champions South Carolina.