Photo By Lorie Shaull, CC BY 2.0 on Flickr

By Audrey Wan

            2023 Ivy League Player of the Year, two-time All-Ivy First Team selection, 2024 WBCA Honorable Mention All-American, and UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers was  expected to be drafted in the WNBA Draft in 2024.  Unfortunately, she was not drafted due to a knee injury.  Back as a team player at UConn in the 2024-2025 season,Bueckers is expected to be drafted in the 2025 WNBA Draft – the mock draft says that Bueckers is expected to be drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks, taking first overall.  Although the star was first overall in the mock draft, there is also a chance that she will be drafted by either the Dallas Wings, Chicago Sky or the Washington Mystics. Currently, Bueckers is most likely to be drafted at the 2025 WNBA Draft, meaning she will be able to play in the WNBA in the 2025.

Bueckers has revealed that she would be coming back to UConn for her fifth year at the basketball program this season.  Fans of her had mixed feelings about the star extending her stay at the UConn basketball program, while others believed that this was a good idea for her as they believed that Coach Auriemma would be able to help her maximize her talents for next year’s WNBA Draft. As this caused UConn fans to go wild, Bueckers soon released a statement as to why she decided to stay at UConn, stating that she wanted to improve her abilities before the WNBA  Bueckers recently made another statement regarding her final season in the Division 1 league. While Bueckers was at the Big East Media Day Event at Madison Square Garden, she said, “I have loved my entire time at UConn.  I can’t imagine it coming to an end, so I try not to worry about the past, I don’t try to worry about the future, I stay where I am.”

Back in February of this year, Bueckers had a choice to enter the WNBA draft, but soon backed out.  In an interview with Coach Auriemma, Bueckers basketball coach at UConn, he believes that the star has been changing and  trying new things at practice.  With the NCAA season starting, Auriemma says that Bueckers is trying to cherish her final season before entering the WNBA Draft.

Works Cited:

Fuller, Jim. “UConn Star Paige Bueckers Arrives at Her Final Season, Eager to Chase That Elusive National Title.” AP News, AP News, 24 Oct. 2024, apnews.com/article/uconn-paige-bueckers-2ed4bd8f63daa9b9d7ae5b1555550d54.