Geno Auriemma Wants Paige Bueckers to Be More Like Diana Taurasi
The UConn Huskies women's basketball team is among the favorites to win the 2025 NCAA National Championship.
Given the absurd amount of injuries UConn dealt with last season, the fact that they made it to the Final Four before getting defeated by Caitlin Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes squad is extremely impressive.
But for a coach like Geno Auriemma — who has won 11 national titles but not a single one since 2016 — the standard is championship or bust, no matter what.
While UConn lost key players Nika Muhl and Aliyah Edwards to the 2024 WNBA Draft, they still have Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, and top freshman Sarah Strong rostered.
However, Auriemma knows his team's success hinges on Bueckers. And in an October 3 article from The Ringer's Mirin Fader, Auriemma explained why he wants his best player to be more like one of his past UConn icons.
"All her life, Bueckers has preferred to pass rather than score, always looking to place her teammates in positions to succeed. 'Giving to others, making sure everybody eats, making sure everybody’s happy, and putting my feelings aside,'" Fader wrote.
"In Auriemma’s ideal world, he would like Bueckers to adopt a mentality similar to [Diana] Taurasi’s," Fader continued. "'That little bit of an edginess,' Auriemma says, before putting it more bluntly: 'A fuck-you mentality.'
"Auriemma often tells Bueckers that basketball is like boxing and that he wants her to come out throwing the first punch, instead of waiting to see what happens. Deferring," she added.
“I want to prove that I’m a winner at every level." The Evolution of Paige Bueckers: She returned to UConn to chase an elusive national title. To win it, she’ll have to become someone new on the court. My story @ringer about change, growth, resilience: https://t.co/xUZdYeYryR pic.twitter.com/OrHdCEwoVh
— Mirin Fader (@MirinFader) October 3, 2024
WNBA legend Diana Taurasi has become notorious for her aggressive, score-first mentality on the court, which many basketball enthusiasts equate to the late icon Kobe Bryant's "Mamba Mentality".
Perhaps Bueckers adopting some of that similar mindset is the key UConn needs to snap their nearly decade-long title drought.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.