This perspective was apparent earlier within the 2025 match, when USC star JuJu Watkins tore her ACL, ending her season. Bueckers, who’s all too acquainted with the “devastation” that comes from that have, made certain to attach along 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 Right now. “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 ladies’s basketball—they usually weren’t at all times rivals: Whereas many people could keep in mind the showdown between the 2 powerhouses throughout 2024’s Closing 4, Bueckers and Caitlin Clark had been really teammates for a short time just a few years in the past. They each performed for Group USA within the 2019 FIBA U19 World Cup—and gained gold. In actual fact, Bueckers was even named MVP of the match, partly attributable to her position serving to her group win within the time beyond regulation remaining.
“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 awesome chief, and I actually actually couldn’t be happier for her and the 12 months she’s had,” Clark advised SNY going into 2024’s Closing 4.
4. Bueckers makes use of her platform for advocacy.
After profitable the ESPY for greatest ladies’s faculty athlete in 2021, Bueckers used her acceptance speech as a chance to advocate for Black athletes. “As a white girl who leads a Black-led sport,” she stated on stage, “I wish to shed a light-weight on Black ladies. They don’t get the media protection they deserve. They’ve given a lot to this sport, the group, and society as an entire, 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 need you to develop up in a world that accepts you for who you might be.”
5. She utilized to trademark the nickname Paige Buckets.
Bueckers will need to have seen a chance when the NCAA started permitting student-athletes to earn cash from their title, picture, and likeness (NIL) in 2021. In response to Sports activities Illustrated, she utilized to trademark the time period Paige Buckets to promote merch tagged along with her apt nickname (specifically “shirts, pants, jackets, footwear, hats and caps, athletic uniforms,” in response to the trademark utility). It appears just like the trademark has since been deserted, however now that UConn is again within the Closing 4 for a document twenty fourth time, it could be time to revive the plan so Bueckers’s followers can get some severe swag.
6. And she or he 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 faculty athletes. In actual fact, she was ranked because the top-earning feminine faculty 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 ladies’s basketball league Unmatched. 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 strategy to caring for her hair and pores and skin, conserving her routine brief and candy and choosing drugstore staples quite 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 wish to make sure that it’s as wholesome as attainable,” she beforehand advised SELF.
