Is UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers the next Diana Taurasi? ‘She has those qualities’
There’s the swagger. There’s the confidence. And there’s the ability to put on one heck of a show on the basketball court on any given night.
Paige Bueckers did just that Monday night against NC State, scoring 27 points and helping to lead the UConn women’s basketball team to a Final Four berth with a win over NC State at Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport.
Even Diana Taurasi, the Huskies legend, had to have been impressed by that. Bueckers seems to have plenty of the Taurasi qualities, but is there a comparison?
“I don’t like to compare players from different eras,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said this week. “I think that’s usually a dangerous thing because it does a little bit of disservice to both kids. Diana was Diana, and there will never be another one like her.”
It’s still early in Bueckers’ collegiate career, of course. Bueckers, a sophomore, started all 29 games her freshman campaign, averaging 20 points, 5.8 assists and 2.3 steals. She won national player of the year awards and was named an All-American.
In comparison, Taurasi started 14 games, averaged 10.9 points, 3.3 assists and 1.2 steals. Taurasi, of course, was on a team team loaded with talent: Swin Cash, Sue Bird, Tamika Williams, Shea Ralph, Asjha Jones, Svetlana Abrosimova, and the list goes on.
That team didn’t win the national title, nor did Bueckers’ freshman year squad. Taurasi and UConn then won three straight. So, the pressure is on for Bueckers in that category.
Taurasi went on to win national player of the year awards in back-to-back seasons and has as distinguished a career as any WNBA player in the league’s history: three-time champion, 10-time All-Star, 10-time All-WNBA first-team, two Finals MVP trophies, she’s the all-time scoring leader, and she has five Olympic gold medals.
She’s arguably the GOAT (greatest of all-time) when it comes to UConn women’s basketball players, an impressive feat considering the talent that has passed through Storrs: Bird, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, Tina Charles, Rebecca Lobo, Nykesha Sales, Jen Rizzotti, and, again, the list goes on.
Taurasi even made the comparison last year in a video posted to social media, adding she was impressed by Bueckers’ passing.
“Oh, freshman Paige has way more confidence than I did,” Taurasi said at the time. “I was in the doghouse. I was like the water girl. I was doing chores for the seniors. We were in way different boats. … But, Paige, the level she’s playing at right now as a freshman. It’s incredible.”
Bueckers has a way to go to reach Tauarsi’s all-time greatness level, of course. They may be different people, but connecting the dots on the personal and basketball attributes has been easy for some. There’s the confidence, the ability to take over and the clear, natural talent. There was also Bueckers’ recent injury that sidelined her much of the season.
“Paige doesn’t have a history yet of having been through all that,” Auriemma said, discussing Taurasi’s extensive injury history in recent years. “But she has those qualities. She has the qualities of a kid who loves the game like Diana does, who lives to be in the gym, who loves to compete more than anything else, wants to compete at everything, wants to compete every day, and she thinks there’s never been a better basketball player than her, even though she’s humble enough to admit that she makes mistakes.
“(Taurasi) was quick to tell you that there’s nobody better than her that’s ever played. They’re both right. I’m the luckiest coach in the world because I had a chance to be around both of them and to see it firsthand. I’ve seen (Taurasi) do what Paige did (Monday night).”
Bueckers may not be striving to be the next Taurasi, but she has a chance this weekend to take another step toward being an all-time great at UConn. She will be doing it in front of the hometown crowd, returning to Minneapolis where she grew up.
“Programs can get you to this game, but somebody needs to be big, like really big, to get you to the next two games, and somebody said, who’s that going to be,” Auriemma said. “I said, ‘I have no idea.’ If you’d have asked me last year I’d have told you who it was going to be, but I still wasn’t ready to put that kind of pressure on Paige (this week). But without a performance like that (Monday night), there is no next weekend. No matter how good the rest of your team is, doesn’t matter.
“(The Final Four) is the same thing. There’s four teams out there, but there’s three or four kids that they’re going to decide who wins the National Championship.”