Final Four: Will Paige Bueckers join UConn's elite with NCAA title? 'Anything less than a national championship is really a disappointment'

TAMPA, Fla. — There’s a flair for the moment that Geno Auriemma sees in Paige Bueckers. More than two decades ago, he saw it in Diana Taurasi.

“They can summon up something that’s needed at a time when it’s exactly needed,” Auriemma said on Thursday ahead of the Final Four. “They take responsibility for what happens. They’re not afraid of the criticism that might come if they fail.”

In the lead-up to the final two games of Paige Bueckers’ collegiate career, the guard has been everything UConn required to reach a 24th Final Four. She threaded three consecutive 30-point performances, headlined by a UConn NCAA tournament-record 40 points over Oklahoma, with an envious efficiency.

If UConn fails within the next four days, the criticism will rain hard. The Huskies will face No. 1 overall seed UCLA on Friday in the Final Four at Amalie Arena. In Connecticut, it has been an eternity since the last national championship in 2016.

Unlike how they see Taurasi, people won’t see Bueckers and think “NCAA champion.”

“Obviously there’s expectations here,” Bueckers said on Thursday. “And anything less than a national championship is really a disappointment. As players, that’s what you play for and what you want to live up to. And the expectations and the pressure, it’s a privilege.”

UConn’s Paige Bueckers will have a chance to win her first national championship this weekend in Tampa. (Justin Tafoya/Getty Images)

(Justin Tafoya via Getty Images)

Bueckers said she isn’t looking ahead, instead approaching it one practice, one weight room session, one 40-minute game, one possession at a time.

“The possession that you’re in is the most important possession of the season,” Bueckers said. “If you approach every possession like that you’ll have a sense of urgency to get everything right.”

It’s that insistence that teammates say rubs off on everyone else.

“When we see her sort of take it into the next level, turn the switch during games, it’s pretty infectious,” graduate transfer Kaitlyn Chen said. “It’s something you want to be a part of. You see her giving her all, so you want to give your all as well.”

UCLA presents a size mismatch and head coach Cori Close might choose to use the same defensive approach on Bueckers, the 2021 Naismith winner, as they put on JuJu Watkins, the current one. In the Big Ten title game, UCLA pushed 6-foot-7 Lauren Betts up on the perimeter to the star scorer. And the leading scorer still got her points on the other end with an instilled confidence in finding open teammates.

“It’s not just her,” Bueckers said. “There’s shooters sprayed around the outside, so you can’t focus too much on one thing.”

To reach the national title game will take all of the Huskies, a deeper group than the six available a season ago. Freshman of the Year Sarah Strong needs to play beyond her years, as she’s done all season. Azzi Fudd’s perimeter shooting will be at a premium. The players who are recipients of what Close views as Bueckers’ best attribute, her vision and passing, need to deliver.

Yet, it all begins with Bueckers’ Taurasi-like ability to snatch a moment and make it her own.

“In the best sense of the word, No. 1, they’re both exceptional con artists,” Auriemma said. “They can spin things so that it goes their way about 99.9 percent of the time. So they live in that world, which I admire that because winners do that. They have to be right. They have to be at the top. They have to be unchallenged. So they’ve got that going for them.”

The similarities between two of his greatest stars are aplenty in Auriemma’s eyes, ranging from personality (extremely outgoing, accommodating) to leadership (generosity, team players) to their happy place (the gym, no matter where in the world they are).

“Now, how are they different?” Auriemma said. “That would be a whole different press conference.”

Should Bueckers’ flair and command of a moment continue, he’ll have the opportunity to delve into that. And Buckers will be one win closer to joining Taurasi as a champion.

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Final Four: Will Paige Bueckers join UConn’s elite with NCAA title? ‘Anything less than a national championship is really a disappointment’

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