Uconn Huskies women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers played a high level during the NCAA tournament and recently scored 40 points in a Sweet 16 match against Oklahoma.
Anyone who has followed Bueckers since the start of his collegial career knows that games like the one against the Sooners were equal to the course. She also lost 34 points against the state of southern Dakota in the second round.
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Uconn guarantees Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers on the bench against the state of the Arkansas in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Saturday March 22, 2025, in Storrs, Connecticut (Ap photo / Jessica Hil;)
But its popularity has not yet soared like that of Caitlin Clark when the sniper won matches at Iowa and has established NCAA records in score. The former NBA Center Etan Thomas suggested in a column for The Guardian last week, there were several reasons for this.
Thomas wrote that the associations of Bueckers with the blacks and the absence of a so-called “black nasty” to face in the NCAA tournament affected the way the whites saw custody of the Huskies. He underlined Bueckers’ decision to shout black women during his Espys speech in 2021 as beginning.
“Meanwhile, there was no black villain for Bueckers to compete,” wrote Thomas, referring to the rivalry on the Clark field with the LSU show, Angel Reese. “The fact that this has meant that it attracted less attention and worship of Central America speaks volumes about the state of the country.”
Uconn’s guard, Paige Bueckers, crosses the student section at Gampel Pavilion after a match against the state of southern Dakota in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Monday, March 2025, in Storrs. (AP photo / Jessica Hill)
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Thomas said that people who did not have the interest in female basketball had suddenly became fans for all the “worst reasons”, adding that they were there to encourage the whiteness of Clark and attack the darkness of Reese, not their talent “.
He then wrote that Bueckers’ decision to cook for his Muslim teammates during Ramadan, sing Gospel songs and has a black mother-in-law and so-called Faux-de-Garous “simply does not sit well with” this certain demography “, which kissed Clark and defended it for” bad reasons “.
Bueckers is on average 19.8 points, 4.7 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game. It is part of a sorority of legendary players Huskies who preceded it, although it lacks the only thing that great alumni like Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi and Breanna Stewart have – a national title.
The guard of Uconn Paige Bueckers passes the ball during the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament against Oklahoma, on Saturday March 29, 2025, in Spokane, Washington. (AP photo / Jenny Kane)
It is likely that Bueckers will be the n ° 1 choice of the WNBA draft and that it will be fun to see her face Clark, Reese, Cameron Brink, Arike Ogunbowale, Jonquel Jones, Sabrina Ionescu and others when she takes the ground in the pros.
