Geno Auriemma now has added yet another big number to an already gaudy resume with Paige Bueckers the sixth of his UConn Huskies to be selected No. 1 overall in the WNBA draft.
Watching Bueckers join Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart is all the more special to Auriemma knowing everything his feisty guard battled through during her career at UConn.
Auriemma said usually careers go smoothly uninterrupted. Bueckers became the first player to earn AP Player of the Year honors in her first year. Then injuries hampered her next two years before she finally was healthy again. Auriemma said there may have been times when Bueckers questioned if that was how her career would be remembered: The games she didn't play or win, the Final Fours or national championships she didn't win.
''That's a lot, you know, when somebody's anointed you as the next great player at UConn,'' Auriemma said Monday night. "So for it to end the way it ended, it's almost prophetic.''
The 23-year-old guard has faced that glare of the spotlight since her high school days in Minnesota.
Now the 5-foot-11 guard heads to the WNBA on the run of success expected since her arrival in Storrs, Connecticut, in 2021 in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. She was one of the most efficient players in college basketball, playing 38 games this season and leading the Huskies to Auriemma's 12th national championship and UConn's first since 2016.
It's been a whirlwind for Bueckers since that career-capping title April 6 with a championship parade, talk show appearances and WNBA rookie orientation.
On Monday night, the Dallas Wings made Bueckers the first overall pick in the WNBA's 29th draft just as everyone expected of the guard for years.
