Paige Bueckers has already cemented her place in women's college basketball history. There's no doubting that.
The UConn star was awarded the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Wade Trophy, which is presented to the best upperclass women's basketball player in Division I. It's an important note, because any player of any class in Division I can win the AP Player of the Year, for example.
The Wade Trophy has been awarded since 1978, when Montclair State's Carol Blazejowski won the award.
Bueckers is looking to win her first national championship with UConn, and the Huskies are looking for their 12th title in program history. Their last win came in 2016.
UConn has had seven players win the Wade Trophy. Maya Moore won it three times (2009-11). Other winners included Rebecca Lobo (1995), Jennifer Rizzotti (1996), Sue Bird (2002), Diana Taurasi (2003), and Breanna Stewart (2015-16).
The only player from UConn, so far, to win the Wade Trophy without a national championship in the same season has been Rizzotti. But it's not necessarily a national crown that defines a legacy.
'I don't think that's up to me. I think that's up to the people who, I guess, get to decide if people's legacies are cemented or whatever. But I'm not worried about that at all," Bueckers said Saturday when asked if she felt she needed a national championship to "validate (her) legacy." "So really the journey is the reward for me. And I nevertake it for granted being able to play here and put on this uniform. ... Whatever talks of legacy and whatever, I guess that's not up to me. All I can worry about and control is who I am every single day and who we are as a team. That's all I'm worried about.
Here's how the Wade Trophy winners from the last 25 years have done in the national championship game, if they made it that far.
2023-24: Caitlin Clark, Iowa
When immediately thinking about Bueckers and the national championship,
Topics in this Story
