Paige Bueckers Details Why This Year's NCAA Tournament Is 'Different' for UConn
Over the past few seasons, the UConn Huskies women's basketball team was struck with an unprecedented amount of significant injuries to star players.
By the time Carolina Ducharme announced that she'd be missing the remainder of the 2023-24 season due to head and neck injuries in late January (she had already been sitting out since November), she became the fifth Huskies player to suffer a season-ending injury or surgery, joining Azzi Fudd (torn ACL), Aubrey Griffin (torn ACL), Jana El Alfy (Achilles injury), and Ayanna Patterson (knee surgery).
This came one season after star guard Paige Bueckers missed an entire year due to a torn ACL. Despite a significantly depleted roster, Geno Auriemma led his team to the Final Four of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, where they were defeated by Caitlin Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes squad.
Fast-forward one year, and the Huskies are about as healthy as can be entering the 2025 NCAA Tournament. And Bueckers spoke about this during her March 21 media availability session.
"I think there's a different feel to it, knowing there's a lot more people available able to help contribute in any way possible," Bueckers said when asked about how this year's tournament feels different than last year, per an X post from SNY. "There's definitely an excitement around it. Just knowing that on any given night, it can be anybody's night and not the same five people or six people that we always had to play last year.
"Not saying that it wasn't a great journey and opportunity that we had last year, but definitely different, more exciting just to be able to have more people available and share the court with more people. And you're just excited for everybody who gets to play," Bueckers added.
"I think there's a different feel to it, knowing there's a lot more people available. There's definitely an excitement around it"
— UConn on SNY (@SNYUConn) March 21, 2025
Paige Bueckers on the difference between the start of last year's NCAA Tournament and this one: pic.twitter.com/2sqwsg441J
UConn entering this tournament with a complete and energized roster is a problem for opposing teams.
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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.