"I'm definitely not perfect": Paige Bueckers gets 100% real on "frustrating" history with injuries

UConn star Paige Bueckers got her fairytale finish after the UConn Huskies finally won the national title after nine years when they defeated the South Carolina Gamecocks 82-59 on Apr. 6 It had not been a smooth ride for Bueckers who has had an injury-plagued career in Storrs.

Her first major injury was a tibial plateau fracture sustained against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Dec. 5, 2021, which caused her to miss 23 games. On Aug. 1, 2022, she then tore her ACL during a pick-up game which ended her season without playing a game.

During an interview with "CT Insider" on Saturday, she revealed the frustration that she felt after her ACL injury and how she questioned God after sustaining the season-ending injury.

“I'm definitely not perfect and definitely after my ACL, I was in more of a state of, like, ‘Why me? Why now?’” Paige Bueckers said. “Like I had stayed here that whole summer to get stronger, to prevent myself from getting injured again after my knee the previous year. That was really frustrating.”

The popular Bueckers worked fervently to be ready for the next season and decided to opt out of the Huskies' European exhibition games to ensure her fitness for the upcoming season. She then sustained a broken thumb which also required surgery and she detailed why she was more frustrated with that relatively minor injury.

“That was the most devastating one for me because I had done everything right, came back from my ACL, worked as hard as I've ever worked in my life, changed who I was, changed how I ate, how I slept, started doing Pilates, like, I just completely changed myself. And I was like, ‘All right, I'm ready to kill this season. I was again in a state of, ‘Why?'"

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Paige Bueckers details turning to God in recovery

During the interview with "CT Insider," Paige Bueckers detailed that during the peak of her injuries, she turned to religion to deal with the agony of being away from the court. She joined UConn’s campus chapter of Athletes in Action alongside her teammates, including Azzi Fudd who had also sustained a season-ending injury, where they started their religious journey together.

Bueckers revealed that despite the devastation of her thumb injury, she took it as a positive sign from God to do things differently.

“Then I think about the preseason and how heavy I was going, how my load was, and just maybe it was Him telling me to calm down a little bit before the actual season started," Paige Bueckers said. "I feel like there's always a reason for everything, and maybe that small thumb injury was protecting me from something bigger.”

Despite her injury struggles, Bueckers came back and earned All-American honors while leading coach Geno Auriemma back to the Final Four, a stage that they missed out on during her absence. The national championship win last week was a culmination of an injury-plagued career in Storrs.