WNBA Teams Are Saying Same Thing About UConn’s Paige Bueckers
Creating a game plan to stop UConn guard Paige Bueckers is a nearly impossible task.
Thankfully for college coaches, that’s going to be the WNBA’s problem before long. Bueckers has one year of NCAA eligibility left after the 2024-25 season, but she is expected to enter the 2025 WNBA Draft.
That’s not soon enough to help North Carolina head coach Courtney Banghart, whose Tar Heels face Bueckers and the Huskies on Friday night.
In a pregame press conference, Banghart revealed the behind-the-scenes chatter she is hearing from WNBA teams about Bueckers ahead of Sunday’s WNBA Draft Lottery.
UConn Huskies guard Paige Bueckers (5).
David Butler II-Imagn Images
“I think Paige is probably the consensus No. 1 draft pick,” Banghart said. She described it as her “own assessment,” but added that WNBA teams are on the same page about Bueckers.
“We’ve had a handful of WNBA programs in our gym already this year,” Banghart revealed. “As we talk, as coaches do, about some of the best players that are still in college, there’s a lot of things being said about Paige that are accurate. She’s a tremendously skilled offensive player. She’s also very unselfish.”
In ESPN’s latest 2025 WNBA Mock Draft, Bueckers is projected as the No. 1 overall pick, ahead of NCAA standouts like USC’s Kiki Iriafen, Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles, LSU’s Aneesah Morrow and Bueckers’ teammate, Azzi Fudd.
Bueckers is projected to go to the Los Angeles Sparks, the team with the highest odds in the 2025 WNBA Draft Lottery (44.2 percent). The Dallas Wings and the Washington Mystics are the other two teams that could land the No. 1 overall pick.
