Paige Bueckers Reflects on Being 'Afraid to Lose' Amid Pressure of UConn Expectations
The UConn Huskies women's basketball team was once arguably this century's most impressive dynasty in all sports.
They have won 10 NCAA National Championships since 2000, including three consecutive from 2002-2004 and four consecutive from 2013-2016.
However, that 2016 national title was also their most recent. Despite making it to six NCAA Final Fours since then, this ongoing title drought is foreign territory for legendary head coach Geno Auriemma and his devoted fanbase.
Auriemma has gone on the record saying that, if they don't win a National Title this year, star player Paige Bueckers will go down as the best player he has ever coach at UConn to never win a Championship.
That's a lot of pressure to put on one player. And a December 12 article from Chantel Jennings of The Athletic shows that his pressure weighed on Bueckers during the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
"[Bueckers] led the injury-riddled Huskies deeper into the NCAA Tournament as she raised her level of play with each subsequent victory," Jennings wrote. "But Auriemma wondered if she was also in her head. He couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was, though. He wrestled with whether to address it, fearing he’d somehow speak it into existence and rattle the player who was impressing everyone around her. He wondered if he was just in his head.
"Ultimately, Auriemma didn’t say anything, and in retrospect — because everything in hindsight is 20/20 — he wishes he would have. Because he was right. What he sensed was a feeling Bueckers hadn’t experienced at UConn before.
"Fear.
“'I was so afraid to lose that I just didn’t remember how to win,'” Bueckers was quoted saying in the article.
"She added: 'Every day I woke up and thought, ‘I don’t want to lose.’'”
I’m gonna be sick MY SHAYLA😫😫 pic.twitter.com/74U7HKPlEd
— Cait (@nikassunnies) December 13, 2024
Bueckers and UConn ultimately did lose in the Final Four, to Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Which means that the 2024-25 season is Bueckers' last shot at securing that elusive National Championship trophy.
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.