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Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win.
As a journalist, I do my best to keep my projections off the people I cover. We all do. Of course, we all have thoughts and ideas about the athletes that we watch and the sports we consume, but a key part of the job is to do the job without making any assumptions about anyone.
In the end, we don't know these people. Even in this social media era, when we're closer to athletes than we've ever been before, we're still only getting mere glimpses into their lives. These are snapshots. We're seeing what they want us to see. We're hearing what they want us to hear.
Given that, it's dangerous to project thoughts and feelings onto athletes. Someone who you think might be a fantastic human being is capable of doing something sinister. On the other hand, someone who you think has publicly been the scourge of the earth might be decent behind closed doors. It's hard to tell sometimes.
With that being said, I couldn't help but be thrilled when Paige Bueckers hoisted the NCAA championship trophy with UConn on Sunday.
The game was never really close. UConn dominated South Carolina throughout, so we knew what moment was coming the entire way. The way that UConn ran through the tournament, this result wasn't really shocking. By the end, it felt expected. And yet, the chills I got when Geno Auriemma and Paige Bueckers shared this moment on the sideline were unbelievable.
Paige Bueckers, a UConn legend pic.twitter.com/Ugfge1KpOT
— UConn Women’s Basketball (@UConnWBB) April 6, 2025
That was such an unusual moment for me. Of course, as a fan, it's always so nice to see the emotional moments for a team when that team finally breaks through and wins it all. It's one of the best parts of this job. You get to document those big moments in people's careers.
But in this moment, I felt a little different. The emotions of this moment hit me directly in a way that I haven't felt in a long time. I spent the rest of my day trying to figure out why. I'm not a UConn fan. So why did this moment tug on my heartstrings the way it did?
Eventually, I realized that it wasn't about the championship at all. Really, I was just thrilled to see something good happen for someone whom I perceived as good.
I don't know Paige Bueckers. I have no idea what sort of person she truly is when the lights are off and the cameras are cut. But I have seen what she's publicly been through. The
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