For UConn to thrive this season, Paige Bueckers needs to look more like Caitlin Clark

Since high school, Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark’s basketball stories have been intertwined.

The top two guards in the 2020 recruiting class — Bueckers the No. 1 overall player, Clark the No. 4 — both came from the Midwest, played on rival EYBL teams and then together in Team USA’s youth program. Both were excellent 3-point shooters, deadly from the wings and from the left baseline, with the ability to hit the free throw and finish at the hoop. But they also had their unique flair – for Clark it was her range; for Bueckers, it was off-balance runners who were perfectly kissed off the glass.

They chose alternative paths for college. Clark opted to stay home and play for Iowa, a program that had been to the Elite Eight four times in program history, but only once in Clark’s lifetime. A native of Minnesota, Bueckers signed with UConn, a dynasty that had not only reached the Elite Eight nearly every year of Bueckers’ life, but also won nine national titles during that span.

Even as freshmen, playing in largely empty arenas (many, only sparsely filled with cardboard cutouts during COVID-19 season), it was clear that they were the type of players who could dominate the college conversation until their careers were virtually certainly led to the WNBA.

That season, they met in the Sweet 16, a game that – from the time the series was released – was billed as a clash between two of the country’s most dynamic scorers.

“It’s been a while since you’ve had two kids that have had that kind of impact, both on their teams and on the game itself at the national level,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said before that game. “It’s pretty cool to have one. But to have two. … They are two very, very young kids, very good players who do a lot for their teams.”

Bueckers’ Huskies defeated Clark’s Hawkeyes 92-72, but their individual performances hinted at the talents they were and could become. Bueckers finished with 18 points, eight assists and nine rebounds. Clark finished with 21 points and five assists.

The game was, in some ways, a perfect encapsulation of why two paths – for two equally impactful players – had diverged. Clark went to Iowa knowing she would be the Hawkeyes’ No. 1 offensive option, their go-to, do-it-all player. She made 21 of Iowa’s 60 shots that night. And since then, that trend has continued, as Clark averaged 19.3 shot attempts per game during her college career, making 31 percent of the Hawkeyes’ field goals since 2020.

But Bueckers chose UConn for almost the opposite reason. While she could be the kind of player who took a third of her team’s shots, she wanted to play within a more balanced system. She actively recruited other players, such as Azzi Fudd, the No. 1 recruit in the class behind her, to join her on the Huskies’ roster, hoping that this would effectively ensure that responsibility would be shared collectively as a team worn – because that’s how it is. UConn had built its dominance over the years.

Even when the program had national player-of-the-year talent like Diana Taurasi, Breanna Stewart and Maya Moore (and even Bueckers during the 2020-21 season), that single player never offensively dominated the box scores like Clark has in recent years did. in Iowa City for the past three years. Over the past 20 seasons, only two players have averaged more than 15 shots per game over the course of a season: Megan Walker (15.5) from 2019-2020 and Moore (16.7) from 2010-2011.

But now the Huskies find themselves in a significantly different situation. With a roster hampered by injuries and an eight-player rotation that includes four freshmen, Bueckers and UConn may have to take a page out of Clark and Iowa’s book. She might have to become the kind of shot hunter, a primary (and secondary) offensive option on every possession that hasn’t been a UConn hallmark but did get the Hawkeyes to the national title game a season ago.

And Bueckers can be that.

Against UCLA, Bueckers took 23 shot attempts. It’s the only reason the Huskies were even in that game. The Bruins tested her on every possession. With every screen she left, two to three players bumped into her, and every time a player gave her breathing room outside the arc, she launched.

It’s not the role Bueckers envisioned for himself at UConn, but it’s the one that gives the Huskies the best chance to right the ship this season. Ironically, what she didn’t want (being an 18-shot player night in and night out) could be the only way UConn comes within striking distance of what she wants (a national title).

To get there, it can’t just be Bueckers. Every Huskies player should raise her game, and UConn will have to figure out the issues on the glass, but by drawing more attention to herself, she will give everyone else a little more breathing room. Even after missing all of last season, she is still one of the most respected shot makers in the game. And it doesn’t matter how many shots she might miss, because like Clark, wherever she is on the floor, whenever she has the ball in her hands, she is a scoring threat.

Now she just has to do that more. Against Texas, Rori Harmon and the Longhorns defense delivered a harsh reality check on the offensive ceiling for UConn. Bueckers was limited to 11 shot attempts and the team managed just 44. Still, the Huskies were within 6 points with less than two minutes remaining.

It’s easy to name a quarterback every game and say that Bueckers should have or should do something, that UConn should have or should put her in different positions (especially considering so much of the credit goes to Texas’ defense) . But ultimately, if UConn wants to be UConn this season, Bueckers will have to take on a role she didn’t want. She has to play more selfishly, a little more unconsciously. It’s the only way UConn can regain the identity of its program by March.

Bueckers who take 20 shots per game, like Clark, won’t solve everything for UConn. But it’s the one thing that can give the Huskies enough support in the meantime to figure out everything else.

(Photo by Paige Bueckers: Lance King/Getty Images)