HARTFORD, Conn. - UConn women's basketball star Paige Bueckers was unanimously named a preseason All-American by the Associated Press on Tuesday as she prepares to lead the No. 2 Huskies for a fifth year in 2024-25.
Bueckers earned first-team All-America honors in both 2021 and 2024, and she was also the AP's National Player of the Year in her freshman season. USC superstar JuJu Watkins was also a unanimous preseason selection after winning National Freshman of the Year in 2024. The Trojans landed forward Kiki Iriafen on the preseason team too, alongside Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo and Texas forward Madison Booker. Hidalgo and Watkins were both first-team All-Americans as freshmen last season, and their selection alongside Booker marks the first time that three sophomores have been named to the preseason team.
Bueckers will go head-to-head with three of her fellow preseason All-Americans during the 2024-25 regular season, beginning with Hidalgo and No. 6 Notre Dame on Dec. 12 in South Bend, Ind. Hidalgo had a career performance with 34 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in a win over the Huskies at Gampel Pavilion last season. UConn is also set for an Elite Eight rematch with No. 3 USC on Dec. 21 at the XL Center, though it will be the first time the teams have met since Iriafen transferred from Stanford at the end of April.
Though Bueckers has played just two complete seasons at UConn, she has a laundry list of accolades that put her in an elite tier of Huskies greats. She was the first freshman to ever win Naismith Player of the Year in 2021 and was again a finalist for the award in 2024 in her first season back from an ACL tear suffered the summer before her junior year. She is also a two-time Big East Player of the Year and a three-time member of the Final Four All-Tournament team. Bueckers played just 17 games in 2021-22 because of a tibial plateau fracture, but she averaged 15.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists during the NCAA Tournament to lead UConn to its first appearance in the national championship game since 2016.
After missing the entire 2022-23 season, Bueckers started all 39 games for the Huskies in 2023-24 and led the team on a miracle run back to the Final Four. Injuries plagued UConn's roster with four players undergoing surgery before or during the season, so Bueckers played the majority of the year out of position with just six to seven players in the rotation. She averaged a team-high 21.9 points and 1.4 blocks per game plus 5.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.2 steals. She also shot 53% from the field and nearly 42% from 3-point range.