UConn’s Paige Bueckers, one of the top college basketball prospects, will decide after the 2023–24 season if she wants to stay with the Huskies for another season or declare for the WNBA draft.
While this season is Bueckers’s senior year, she missed the entirety of her junior year due to an ACL injury that sidelined her, and she also missed a good chunk of her sophomore season with a tibial plateau fracture.
Bueckers remains healthy this season, but several of her UConn teammates have been sidelined with various injuries. Given how little time she has gotten to play with a fully healthy Huskies squad, the chance to return for another season is tempting.
Bueckers said on Tuesday that if she were to decide to return for another year of UConn basketball, it would be to play alongside her teammates, rather than any projections on which team would take her in the draft.
“I think that’s what it’s all about. It’s not about teams in the draft, who’s got what pick. It’s all about me loving playing here, me loving my teammates and wanting to get more experiences and more time with them and more time in the program,” Bueckers said, via The UConn Blog’s Daniel Connolly. “I think that’s the deciding factor, just wanting to be here longer and not anything necessarily that's already picked and chosen in the draft.”
So far this season, Bueckers is averaging 19.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.2 steals per game. The WNBA draft is set to take place on April 15.
