This angle was apparent earlier within the 2025 match, when USC star JuJu Watkins tore her ACL, ending her season. Bueckers, who’s all too accustomed to the “devastation” that comes from that have, made positive to attach together with her. “I reached out to her providing my assist and prayers and letting her know that we’ve exchanged numbers now, so we’re locked in,” Bueckers stated, per USA As we speak. “No matter she wants mentally, bodily, to vent, ask questions.”
3. She was as soon as teammates with Caitlin Clark.
Two of the most important names in girls’s basketball—and so they weren’t at all times rivals: Whereas many people might keep in mind the showdown between the 2 powerhouses throughout 2024’s Last 4, Bueckers and Caitlin Clark have been really teammates for a quick time a number of years in the past. They each performed for Staff USA within the 2019 FIBA U19 World Cup—and gained gold. The truth is, Bueckers was even named MVP of the match, partially as a consequence of her function serving to her group win within the additional time last.
“Since I’ve identified her, since she was in center faculty, she’s at all times labored that very same approach, she’s at all times had that fireside, she’s at all times been an excellent chief, and I actually truthfully couldn’t be happier for her and the yr she’s had,” Clark instructed SNY going into 2024’s Last 4.
4. Bueckers makes use of her platform for advocacy.
After profitable the ESPY for finest girls’s school athlete in 2021, Bueckers used her acceptance speech as a possibility to advocate for Black athletes. “As a white girl who leads a Black-led sport,” she stated on stage, “I need to shed a light-weight on Black girls. They don’t get the media protection they deserve. They’ve given a lot to this sport, the neighborhood, and society as a complete, and their worth is simple.”
Bueckers additionally makes use of her social media platforms to attract consideration to racism, police brutality, and social injustice. It’s private for Bueckers, whose youthful brother Drew is Black. She captioned a carousel of pictures of Drew promising, “I’m going to work for change, little brother. I would like you to develop up in a world that accepts you for who you’re.”
5. She utilized to trademark the nickname Paige Buckets.
Bueckers should have seen a possibility when the NCAA started permitting student-athletes to earn cash from their title, picture, and likeness (NIL) in 2021. In keeping with Sports activities Illustrated, she utilized to trademark the time period Paige Buckets to promote merch tagged together with her apt nickname (particularly “shirts, pants, jackets, footwear, hats and caps, athletic uniforms,” in line with the trademark software). It seems just like the trademark has since been deserted, however now that UConn is again within the Last 4 for a file twenty fourth time, it might be time to revive the plan so Bueckers’s followers can get some severe swag.
6. And he or she already has some fairly candy sponsors and partnerships.
Bueckers has 5.7 million followers throughout Instagram and TikTok mixed, and he or she could also be among the many highest-paid school athletes. The truth is, she was ranked because the top-earning feminine school athlete of 2024 by NIL Retailer. She’s partnered with a number of noteworthy manufacturers, together with Bose, Uber, Google Chrome, Chegg, Intuit, Dunkin’, CeraVe, and even the brand new girls’s basketball league Unequalled. She’s additionally sponsored by Gatorade and Nike.
7. However her off-the-court routine is fairly chill.
Regardless of her fame, Bueckers takes a laid-back, down-to-earth method to caring for her hair and pores and skin, retaining her routine quick and candy and choosing drugstore staples fairly than super-luxe merchandise. Her nighttime routine begins with a bathe since all that train drains her hair—to say nothing of the dye (yep, that blond hue isn’t pure, as reported by Attract!) and her typical on-court coiffure (face-framing French braids paired with a ponytail). “Between the braids, the coloring, the sweat, I simply need to be sure that it’s as wholesome as doable,” she beforehand instructed SELF.
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