Paige Bueckers Dad: Paige Bueckers Dad is Bob Bueckers. Paige Madison Bueckers is a Big East Conference college basketball player for the University of Connecticut Huskies. Bueckers was the number one recruit in her class at Hopkins High School in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and was named national high school player of the year. Bueckers was a unanimous first-team All-American in her rookie season at UConn, and she became the first freshman to win all four major national collegiate player of the year awards she was eligible for. She guided UConn to the NCAA Tournament final four in 2021 and set school records for freshmen assists and single-game assists.

Bueckers was born in Edina, Minnesota, on October 20, 2001, and grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. She began playing basketball when she was five years old. She also played Little League Baseball as a catcher as a kid, as well as American football and soccer, but by first grade, she was all about basketball. While in elementary school, Bueckers became acquainted with future NBA player Jalen Suggs. Her Dad coached her in basketball until she was in seventh grade. LeBron James and Kyrie Irving of the NBA, as well as Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), inspired Bueckers. She grew up cheering for the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.

Bueckers was a member of Hopkins High School’s tenth grade and junior varsity basketball teams in Minnetonka, Minnesota, when he was in seventh school. She was also playing year-round with North Tartan, an AAU team that competed in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League, a national circuit, at the time.

In the year leading up to her eighth-grade year, Bueckers grew four inches. She joined Hopkins’ varsity team in eighth grade and averaged 8.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.4 steals per game under head coach Brian Cosgriff. She was the team’s best three-point shooter and second-best assist provider. Hopkins concluded the season with a 28–3 record and a runner-up finish in the Class 4A state tournament, with Bueckers earning All-Tournament honours.

Bueckers was a five-star recruit who was listed by ESPN as the best player in the 2020 class. She had gotten scholarship offers from NCAA Division I basketball programmes at Minnesota, Iowa State, and Illinois by the eighth grade, when she was 14 years old. Bueckers committed to the University of Connecticut on April 1, 2019. Notre Dame, Oregon State, Oregon, UCLA, Minnesota, South Carolina, Maryland, Texas, and Duke were among the other contenders she considered. Bueckers signed a National Letter of Intent with UConn on November 13, 2019. Since 1998, she is the 11th number-one recruit to sign and attend UConn.
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