UConn star Paige Bueckers continues to make history.

On Monday, Nike named Bueckers its name, image and likeness athlete to design and launch a Player Edition sneaker. On Saturday, the brand introduced the Nike GT Hustle 3 by Bueckers.

“It’s definitely motivating to wear your own shoe,” Bueckers said in a press release. “I grew up wearing Nikes – all the signature shoes – so having this Player Edition model is surreal. I just want to stand out in it.”

The sneaker features personal details in regards to the 2021 Naismith Player of the Year. The area codes for Storrs, Connecticut and Bueckers' hometown in Minnesota intersect on the left tongue, and a text bubble that reads “Be You, Be Great” is printed on the left heel, as a nod to the message she receives from her father before every game. “Bueckers” is printed on the fitting heel.

Bueckers first signed a NIL take care of Nike in September 2023, adding the apparel company to a protracted list of deals with corporations like Gatorade, Dunkin', Bose and Chegg.

In August, Bueckers also signed an NIL contract with Unrivaled, the brand new winter 3×3 skilled league co-founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier. She was the primary NCAA athlete to receive league ownership. She is predicted to play within the league next yr.

Bueckers' playing future was a hot topic of conversation following the 2025 WNBA Draft Lottery in mid-November. The Dallas Wings won the lottery and can give you the option to pick Bueckers No. 1 when the Huskies star declares for the draft in April.

Bueckers is a redshirt graduate but could still return to UConn for an additional season after receiving an extra yr of eligibility resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Bueckers shared this summer that this school season could be her last, and later shared in a social media post that she could be attending her final UConn media day this fall.

She joins a growing group of female basketball players to assist design Nike sneakers. Jewell Loyd and Jonquel Jones are among the many WNBA players who debuted player-exclusive Nike sneakers last season, while Sabrina Ionescu has a preferred signature sneaker and A'ja Wilsons are set to launch by the 2025 WNBA season turn out to be. Caitlin Clark also debuted several exclusive player sneakers and can reportedly receive a Nike signature sneaker in the long run as a part of an endorsement deal she signed last spring.

In six games this season, Bueckers, a two-time first-team All-American, averaged 22 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. UConn is undefeated and hosts Holy Cross on Tuesday before playing Louisville on Saturday within the Women's Champions Classic at Barclays Center.

Required reading

USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb noticed a stranger approaching. She thought possibly she had spilled something and he would point it out to her. Instead, he stopped near their table and paused.

“Hey, Coach,” he said. “I thought it was you. I have to ask…”

She waited.

“Is JuJu really 1.90 meters tall?” he asked.

Gottlieb laughed. She replied — yes, JuJu Watkins is listed at 6-foot-2 — after which joked that it relies on how much of Watkins' iconic bun counts. An enormous guard within the even greater Big Ten was an attractive prospect for this LA sports fan. Even over the summer, he eagerly looked forward to the season where USC – a team that appeared on national networks just 3 times last season before advancing to the Elite Eight after the season – appeared nine times on ESPN, FOX, FS1 and NBC might be watching the Big Ten Tournament.

He thanked Gottlieb, wished her luck and set off.

The exchange felt oddly familiar to Gottlieb, just not as the top coach of USC, a program she took over in 2021 when it was still a basement dweller within the Pac-12. Instead, it reminded her of experiences during two seasons as an assistant with the Cleveland Cavaliers, when voracious NBA fans wanted to interrupt down every possible match and each possible moment.

“For those of us who have really been following this game for a long time, we knew there were great players already, we knew the great stories before, but now we have to see the rest of the world understand it and take notice cool,” Gottlieb said. “Then you add this type of position that I was thrust into, where we're one of the programs where one of these star players gets a ton of attention. It's a big responsibility. It's a great opportunity.

“It’s not lost on me that we’re at the peak of this moment, so to speak.”

More than 2,500 miles across the country, UConn coach Geno Auriemma can relate. For nearly 4 a long time, a few of the biggest stars to play the sport have come through the Huskies' gym. But the fanfare didn't match what he saw on the lads's side.

Until now.

In early October, UConn announced that season ticket packages had sold out for the primary time for the reason that 2004-05 season after Diana Taurasi won a national championship as a senior.

This didn't occur through the Maya Moore or Breanna Stewart years, or after 111 straight wins or 4 straight national titles. Not until now – Paige Buecker’s last season in Storrs.

“There are people who have never had an opinion who now have an opinion or who want to know things they never wanted to know, but now they are familiar with names and events that they never thought twice about in the past. said Auriemma. “The die-hard fans can’t wait for the season to start. But the casual fan tuned in, took a sip and is now curious.”

The increasing attention on women's basketball is undeniable. Every number confirms it. Last season's NCAA Tournament set viewership records, including a title game that drew 18.9 million viewers (beating the lads's title game by nearly 4 million, something most fans assumed would never occur). Iowa star Caitlin Clark's uncanny knack for the massive moment and talent to hit logo three-pointers lured thousands and thousands, but those fans also found other players, teams and games they enjoyed. Even excluding Iowa's NCAA Tournament games, ESPN viewership increased 43 percent during March Madness last yr.

Clark's draw, in addition to that of Angel Reese at LSU, continued within the WNBA. Attendance and viewership for “Indiana Fever” skyrocketed; The same was true for Reese's Chicago Sky. Again, these recent WNBA fans stayed for the opposite great talents.

Stars drive sports and leagues forward. They attract casual observers and switch them into die-hard observers. With Clark and Reese leaving for the WNBA, there's no disappointment for the school basketball stars who help carry the game's meaning, but the eye might be focused on two.

Two coasts, two conferences and two national title contenders feature Watkins of USC and Bueckers of UConn. They play in programs which are iconic in their very own way and recognized worldwide. They are each elite – potentially generational – and have the ball of their hands greater than almost anyone else.

Watkins is the reigning Freshman of the Year and is attempting to revitalize a Trojans that didn't matter during her lifetime. She's the hometown kid who produced stars like Kevin Hart, Saweetie, LeBron James and John Wall finally season's home games. The fluidity of her game and her effortless quality make it seem to be she's never rushed the ground before, whether she's pulling up from three or attacking the basket (or hitting a shot somewhere in between).

Kevin Hart was in attendance to look at JuJu Watkins and the USC Women's Basketball team #ncaaw #fighton pic.twitter.com/31PLjQDknN

– WNBA Got Game (@wnbagotgame) December 20, 2023

Bueckers, who was named national player of the yr as a freshman 4 years ago, is in her final season at UConn. Despite her lauded legacy, few highschool players were more celebrated than her upon entering Storrs. And yet, in her fifth yr, a national championship — of which UConn has won 11 — has eluded Bueckers. She's a slender guard with a lot skill inside that even when she played with the Four last season, she was still named an All-American. A player so confident that she trademarked her nickname “Paige Buckets” before her sophomore season.

The game, the storyline and the celebrity of Watkins and Bueckers, in addition to the meeting between USC and UConn in December (a rematch of last season's Elite Eight) are the explanation why people, including recent fans, are following women's basketball this season grow to be.

But unlike the players before them with the identical characteristics, they’re competing in a time of unprecedented change.

The NCAA was forced to speculate more in the ladies's NCAA Tournament attributable to an investigation that exposed serious disparities in men's and ladies's NCAA basketball. Because of the growing attention, ESPN – the media partner of the ladies's NCAA Tournament – paid big last yr for the media rights to broadcast the event. Because of NIL, players like Bueckers and Watkins are recognizable outside of ladies's basketball circles and work with major firms like Nike And Gatorade. Watkins was spotted on the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival, threw out the primary pitch at a Los Angeles Dodgers game in June and won the ESPY for best breakout athlete. Bueckers attended the US Open, where she was wowed by Frances Tiafoe and Coco Gauff, sat front row at New York Fashion Week and appeared on the JumboTron at a Los Angeles Rams game.

“We have no boundaries, and that's why you see talent, you see coaching, you see fan support, you see spectators – you see all those things,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “This is probably the biggest move in our game in its history, and it couldn't happen at a more perfect time. … There are so many people tuned in; We met at that moment.”

To proceed to meet this moment, women's basketball needs the following wave of stars. It takes teams with compelling storylines (Staley's Gamecocks are an ideal example of reigning champions coming back after an undefeated season to repeat), but it surely also takes individuals like Watkins and Bueckers, whose stories and journeys might be just as compelling this season like their game the ground.

“It's great that we have them because it would be a shame to build on last year's star strength and then not be able to build on it this season,” said Auriemma. “We have to present these guys and these teams and play well. We need to give all these new people who are going to be watching something to look forward to so they will want to come back.”

If Bueckers and Watkins do what their coaches imagine, recent fans will definitely have reasons to maneuver on and find their next favorite players once Bueckers and Watkins head to the professionals.

Auriemma and Gottlieb, who’ve been involved on this game for a long time, know that this moment is just not just different; it’s long overdue. What comes next (or actually who comes next) will move the game forward.

The Athletic One;

If there’s one necessary lesson from the last 4 years of Paige Buecker's college basketball profession, it is that this, she explains: “You never know what each day will bring. You never know what life has in store for you.”

There was a time when Bueckers didn't necessarily feel that way, when she assumed her plans would come to fruition. Like when she arrived in Storrs, Connecticut, in the autumn of 2020. She knew then that her first season — already set with COVID-19 protocols for testing, masks and isolation — wouldn't look quite like she at all times imagined as a child. Still, when she thought in regards to the 4 seasons that lay ahead of her, there was a way of anticipation and progress: Four years of healthy playing, a few national titles, a level and, at the tip of it, a spot within the 2024 WNBA Draft.

Very little has gone in response to plan. Bueckers could have attended the 2024 WNBA Draft, but she was there to assist her teammates Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Mühl get chosen. She described the evening as “surreal,” as she at all times imagined the category she got here in with, together with Edwards and Mühl, can be the category she got here out with. Instead, she's now watching the 2 begin their WNBA careers on TV while she returns to school for offseason training in one among two available redshirt years.

Paige Bueckers supports her teammates in #WNBADraft pic.twitter.com/iQnI3sjNht

— The Athletic WBB (@TheAthleticWBB) 16 April 2024

Bueckers has played only two seasons of faculty basketball, as a freshman when she was named national player of the yr, and last season when she was again named an All-American. She made it to the Final Four 3 times in 4 years but never won a title.

She has adjusted her expectations and envisions her name being called within the 2025 WNBA Draft. She plans to make the 2024-25 season her last at UConn, she said.

“There's a much greater sense of urgency,” Bueckers said. “This is my last year to get what I came here for, which is a national championship. … No more 'Passive Paige.'”

As Bueckers begins her final chapter in Storrs and completes her first (and last) collegiate offseason workouts where she is fully healthy, she is targeted on changing her mentality for good while recognizing the necessity for flexibility, which is, in any case, the lesson she has learned over the past 4 years.

Bueckers' last likelihood at a national title will include some adjustments. Edwards and Muehl are gone. The three returning seniors – Azzi Fudd, Aubrey Griffin and Caroline Ducharme – are recovering from injuries. Kaitlyn Chen, a Princeton transfer, is adjusting to this system after arriving on campus in late May.

But this variation within the roster – nothing latest for Bueckers – makes her mental transformation all of the more necessary as she prepares to shoulder lots more.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma can point to March to remind Bueckers of her focus. Talk about Bueckers' aggressive mentality has been “continuous” since she arrived on campus in 2020, he said. But the Huskies' recent history, an unexpected run to the Final Four led by Bueckers, provides all of the evidence she must proceed to be a bit of more selfish on the court. Before the Big East tournament, Auriemma said he told Bueckers, “Paige, you need to get to 30 every night. Just make life easier for everybody else. We don't have a lot of options. We don't have a lot of opportunities. So this is what we have. And we can't mess around with this stuff.”

In short: no more passive Paige.

In five NCAA Tournament games, Buecker's game elevated to a complete latest level. After averaging 21.3 points, 3.7 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game through the regular season, she averaged 25.8 points, 4.6 assists and eight rebounds per game while leading the Huskies to their twenty third Final Four.

“I love scoring goals. I've always felt like I'm a passer. I love getting my teammates involved. I like to make sure everyone is happy,” Bueckers said. “But at the end of the day, when we win, everyone is happy, and I think we have a better chance of winning when I'm aggressive.”

Auriemma added, “She's too nice and cares too much about what other people think. Don't get me wrong, that's a great quality. I just don't know if that's a great quality for a killer superstar.”

Bueckers has learned an excessive amount of over the past 4 seasons to make too many plans. Everything can change immediately. She knows that because she's been through it (multiple times). But with a heightened sense of urgency, she's approaching this offseason in another way. She desires to are available in as a greater scorer, passer and rebounder. When asked where her game can improve, she comes up with many options: her range, 3-pointers, shots off the dribble, one-on-one movement, ball handling, fiddling with each feet, experimenting with tempo.

She tries to not live an excessive amount of up to now, nor look too far into the longer term. She hasn't rewatched the Huskies' final game within the 2024 NCAA Tournament – a loss to Iowa – but she’s going to. She knows she needs to observe it to completely put last season behind her. Just just like the NCAA Tournament, there can be lessons to be learned from those 40 minutes, but Bueckers still wonders if the sport may need turned out in another way if she had been just a bit of more aggressive. With one final yr at UConn, she'll ensure that she never feels that way after a game, she said.

“I want to be a selfless player, someone that people enjoy playing with, but at the same time I try to balance that with being a killer, a scorer and a basket-hunter,” she said. “For me, it's always been a struggle to find the happy medium, but I think from now on, the main thing I need to do is be more aggressive.”