UConn star Paige Bueckers highlights her favorite moment as underdogs in the 2024 college basketball season

UConn Huskies star Paige Bueckers has been splitting her time in the off-season between the gym and supporting her former teammate Aaliyah Edwards, whose Washington Mystics played the Las Vegas Aces last week.

Most recently, Bueckers appeared on "Overtime" and highlighted her favorite moment from the concluded season where the underdog Huskies reached the Final Four of the NCAA tournament.

"Making it to the Final Four was huge for us," Bueckers said. "A season with a great amount of adversity and challenges, lots of injuries, lots of highs and lows and a lot of lowered expectations from outside sources because of people obviously thinking that we weren't gonna make it there."

Expect a different Paige Bueckers next season

Last season was the revival of Paige Bueckers after missing huge chunks of the past two campaigns with season-ending injuries. These followed a stellar freshman season where she was the toast of the college basketball world.

Bueckers averaged 21.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists last season but took her game to a whole new level during the 2024 NCAA tournament. There, she averaged 27.9 points, 8.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists before the Final Four clash against the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Paige Bueckers only managed 17 points against Caitlin Clark's Iowa in the narrow 71-69 loss and was notoriously shot-shy. After the game, UConn Huskies coach Geno Auriemma challenged her to be more selfish in her approach:

"This is a great learning experience for Paige," Auriemma said. "Paige is a patient person who waits, and I think she is going to learn or has begun to learn, that there is no waiting at this time of the year. It's you to make it happen yourself and you have to be more selfish.

"I know she wants to be the greatest teammate of all time, but I think those days are over and she needs to assert herself more."

During a recent interview with CT Insider, Bueckers indicated that she had heeded Auriemma's advice, promising a different approach to the game next season.

“I think just being more assertive, being more aggressive, not being passive,” Bueckers said. “Which is not equal to ‘I'm not passing anymore.’ I love to pass but just looking for my shot, creating for others.

“I’ve been a pass-first, unselfish player, but being a killer and being unselfish; it doesn't have to be one or the other. Like it can be both. And that's how I've gotten here. That's how I've been. But it's just more killer, more aggressive, more assertive and then the unselfish things can happen after that.”

Paige Bueckers is widely expected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA draft but first, she has to navigate a punishing 2024-2025 college basketball season where she will have to prove her mettle all over again.