Paige Bueckers Explains Food-Related Reason For Viral UConn Bus Frustration
The UConn Huskies women's basketball team improved their Big East conference record to 16-0 after their dominant 86-47 win over Butler on Sunday.
However, given that No. 5 ranked UConn entered the game as a massive favorite, the final score was not the contest's biggest story. Rather, the biggest story was about the crowd that came to the game — and who they were there to watch.
This game marked the first sellout in the Butler women's basketball team's history. And given the insane crowds that remained in the stadium to watch UConn star guard Paige Bueckers speak on the microphone and then crowded UConn's locker room after the contest ended, it was clear that the projected No. 1 pick of the 2025 WNBA Draft was the game's main attraction.
The crowd of people in the hallway trying to see @paigebueckers1 in the locker room
— Bri Lewerke (@brilewerke) February 22, 2025
Just as many people behind me, too, I was sandwiched lol pic.twitter.com/QyDCOdFx44
This sort of frenzied attention would be tough for any athlete to deal with. And after a February 22 TikTok post about Bueckers went viral, fans became worried about how she was handling it all.
TikTok user @kikioatis was next to UConn's bus after the game (along with a massive crowd of fans) and caught a video of a visibly frustrated Bueckers standing up in the bus. The caption to her post was, "paigey wasn’t in the mood 😔 the crowds were HUGE and a lot.."
Many of the post's comments expressed sympathy for Bueckers, who they believed was overwhelmed by the attention.
That is until Bueckers commented on the post and wrote, "Yall I just forgot my jimmy johns sandwich💔😔".
LMAOO pic.twitter.com/v72D1VjR8t
— jaslyn (@stewjaa) February 23, 2025
In other words, Bueckers was apparently only frustrated about her food and not about the crazy crowds.
Hopefully the Huskies superstar was able to secure that sandwich before her team bus took off.
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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.