"Paging Paige Bueckers"
Including a scoreless quarter - 40 points!
So she needed a poke from the old man. So what? You gonna hold it against her?
UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma is not what you’d call a shrinking violet when it comes to expressing his opinion about things he doesn’t like. He lit into the NCAA (correctly, I think) about the stupidity of the women’s tournament scheduling — the classic indignant guest — and as things weren’t going right for his Huskies in the second quarter of Saturday’s duel with Oklahoma in the Sweet Sixteen, there wasn’t anything sweet about the way he addressed his star player during a time out.
With about 3:38 in the second quarter, Bueckers found herself a seat on the Husky bench, Oklahoma had a lead and Geno had something on his mind. As ESPN’s Holly Rowe, somewhat breathlessly relayed to a national television audience moments after it happened, Geno was paging Paige, his best player.
“He is furious with her about the defense she is playing,” Rowe reported. “She’s playing great offensively but he really challenged her the last time out. And again, she’s sitting here and he’s “What the heck, Paige?” He’s mad at her right now.”
ESPN mikes are good and Geno tends to be loud but we didn’t exactly hear him. Or if he did actually say “heck.” If he did, that’s commendable restraint from him in such a stressful situation. If that language had to be somewhat filtered for a young audience, so be it.
Though Bueckers did not score in that quarter, she managed to throw in a career high 40 in the other three quarters she did score and after that early scare and a halftime deficit, UConn rolled past the Lady Sooners, who weren’t particularly ladylike — and I don’t mean that as a slam; they’re a very physical team with a towering center whose mere turn of her shoulder happened to almost launch Ashlynn Shade into space and she hit the floor harder than those astronauts landed in the ocean off the Florida coast a few days ago. UConn was an 82-59 winner, moving on to the Elite Eight. And no women’s basketball player I’ve seen in recent years short of Caitlin Clark was as elite as Bueckers was yesterday evening. She was, again, amazing.
With Geno’s inspirational message ringing in her ears — and maybe she was thinking I’ve only gotta hear a couple more of those — the spectacular young Minnesotan put on the kind of show that any basketball fan had to admire. And yes, she did plenty on defense, too with steals, diving on the floor for loose balls, rebounding, blocking shots and throwing them in from all corners of the court like an inspired, deadly accurate assassin.
Even the basket seems to acknowledge that the basketball launched by her has a different feel to it. The net swishes so sweetly, it’s almost musical. And regarding her defense, Bueckers had it verbally, too. When you spend this much time in Storrs in earshot of Auriemma, you learn to deflect.
“Geno was pretty hard on you,” Rowe said after her brilliant 40-point effort. “Particularly on your defense.”
And Bueckers, speaking fast enough to give carpal tunnel to a court stenographer, said something about “You just want that next-play mentality. If you make mistakes and I made mistakes, you try to learn from them.” Ha! Holly went for the juicy quote and Bueckers slid right past her and that microphone, too.
What was really cool for all those old-time basketball fans was her 39th and 40th points came on the oldest of basketball plays, the give-and-go. She dished the ball to Sarah Strong at the top of the key, headed for the basket and Strong bounced it right to her for a layup. She can hit the 3. She can finish a play like Bob Cousy to John Havlicek.
Bueckers is so smooth, silky, smart and patient, controlling the ball, spotting the opening, going straight up, textbook-style, then placing the ball — or so it seems — in the center of the rim. When she’s hitting like this, she could score every time down the floor.
Or at least it looks that way and for Oklahoma, it probably felt exactly like that. While that first half gave UConn a bit of a fright; Sarah Strong finally looked like a freshman (maybe playing in the shadow cast by Oklahoma’s hulking 6-foot-4 Raegan Beers scared her, basketball in the dark?) and Azzi Fudd didn’t have her outside bombs landing as per usual. But Ashlynn Shade, gotta love the kid, did, draining a few 3’s to keep Geno calm, playing ferocious, tenacious defense, keeping UConn within striking distance.
The Huskies came out like a different team in the second half, went on a couple of just brilliant runs, the kind of basketball that, as a coach, you draw up in your mind but so seldom get to see. But Geno does, even if it fogs up his glasses from time to time. There are more games to go, tough teams still alive in this tournament, difficult travel situations to overcome and you’re going to have those cold quarters from time to time. UConn HAS to hit those outside shots and when they don’t fall — like in that first half — it can get stressful.
But when you’ve been at this for, what, 40 years, you understand that sometimes you’ve gotta reach out and poke somebody, even if it happens to be your best player and one of the greatest all-around players in the storied history of the most storied women’s basketball programs in NCAA history. She can take it. She’s learned.
Bueckers made light of the stories she heard about Geno getting emotional about her leaving him and his program at the press conference after the final game at Gampel. She wasn’t buying it. At least, not that she was showing any of us.
If Bueckers’ brilliance in Saturday’s showcase told us anything, this young woman has her sights set on a national championship. Nothing short of that. If she needs to be poked a bit to help her team get there, well, that’s fine. It’s not like she hasn’t heard it before. The cool thing is, after all these years and practices and time-out blasts, she still listens.
Beautiful!!!