Paige Bueckers is a verified superstar. From TikTok to titles, UConn revelation handles it all (2024)

Around the time the pandemic shut down sports, Paige Bueckers sent this cryptic text: “Mom…”

Those ellipses could mean anything. It was easy to assume Bueckers might be in some kind of trouble, though her mother, Amy Fuller, says that’s “never the case.” But she sensed something was happening with her daughter, who was a high school senior, the best girls’ basketball player in the nation and soon-to-be new star of UConn basketball.

When she replied to the message with an apprehensive “what,” Bueckers responded with a mind-blown emoji. That only left Fuller more mystified. At this point, a phone call was in order.

“Drake followed me on Instagram.”

“Oh my gosh, you had me nervous like something happened.”

“Something did happen.”

The reactions were similar when Bueckers received a verification on Instagram and a follow from Kyrie Irving. In the year since, the attention from celebrities has become more routine. Bueckers now has more than 682,000 followers (and counting) on Instagram, and another 225,700 on TikTok, making her one of the most followed college athletes, men’s or women’s.

But, according to those closest to her, you wouldn’t know it.

As a high school phenom in Minnesota, Bueckers racked up accolades and titles while drawing big crowds and online followers. She arrived at UConn last summer surrounded by more hype than arguably any of her predecessors, and she’s lived up to it as the Huskies enter the Sweet 16. But in a digital world where every action and social media post is scrutinized, Bueckers seems to be approaching her collegiate life in much the same way she did her high school career — by being a good teammate and true to herself.

“She totally could have taken the hype and the cameras and no one would have had a problem with it — she deserves it,” said Amaya Battle, a high school teammate. “But she shared it with everybody.”

Smoke filled the gym. A SLAM crew had come to film Bueckers and her Hopkins High School teammates, not long after a “Day in the Life” video impressed them enough to feature her on the magazine cover and in this docuseries. The interviews they were beginning to film that Sunday would offer more insight into Bueckers’ senior season and her team’s journey to the GEICO Nationals.

The crew transformed an elementary school gym, reserving half of the space for cameras, haze machines and lighting equipment. By the end of the shoot, former Hopkins coach Brian Cosgriff had to bring in fans to air out the space so students wouldn’t enter a hazy building Monday morning. The other half of the location featured snacks and games such as Uno, Twister and Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robot for entertainment during the players’ downtime. Bueckers stuck around for the duration and blended in with her teammates.

“If you didn’t know who she was, you probably wouldn’t be able to pick out the star of the bunch,” SLAM senior video producer Christian Quezada said. “Being part of the team was really important to her.”

Bueckers, a standout basketball player since her youth days, joined the high school varsity as an eighth-grader. By early sophom*ore year, so many college coaches were calling that her AAU coach, Tara Starks, kept a notebook to track the names. As the attention grew, Bueckers never changed. She continued to set goals and show up at practice — even when her USA Basketball commitments required a Friday departure, she would be with her team on Thursday.

As a junior, Bueckers was chasing her first Minnesota Class 4A state title after three consecutive losses in the championship game. In one of the first practices before the state tournament, Bueckers pulled Battle aside. Her freshman teammate had struggled through the workout and was feeling stressed.

“Don’t worry, we got you.” Bueckers told her. “I got you.”

Bueckers was battling an illness in the championship game and Hopkins trailed at halftime, but she didn’t crack. She had 13 points and seven assists as Hopkins cut down the nets, finishing the season with an unblemished 32-0 record. In April of that year, Bueckers committed to UConn as the No. 1 prospect in her recruiting class.

By the time her senior year began, Bueckers was being featured on ESPN and the cover of SLAM, and her highlights were circulating across social media. She and her Hopkins teammates played in front of packed crowds, with people coming from outside of Minnesota to watch her play. Starks once brought a girl who traveled from North Carolina into the locker room to meet Bueckers. After Bueckers finished praying, a ritual she performs before and after games, she fulfilled the girl’s wish.

Bueckers felt there was a responsibility that came with being a role model. Cosgriff, at his new school, fields questions from students about what it was like to coach her. They ask him to FaceTime their hometown hero — a request that makes him chuckle, knowing how busy she is at UConn.

But in high school, Bueckers made herself available. By the time she had finished signing autographs before her senior banquet, the food was gone.

“There’s no way she would have signed five and walked away and had to deal with the disappointment of those kids,” Fuller said.

It was Bueckers who educated her mom on the existence of Snapchat screenshots and being careful about what she posts. At a Nike Girls Skills Academy in 2015, she attended a session that addressed social media savviness, since coaches often check players’ accounts during the recruiting process.

And soon, college athletes will be able to be compensated for their name, image and likeness. In January, the NCAA indefinitely delayed a vote on its own legislation. But states have passed their own laws, and bills have been introduced at the federal level. Whenever legislation passes, Bueckers will be in a prime position to profit.

“She’s a perfect example of someone who’s going to have a ton of opportunities,” said Casey Schwab, CEO and founding partner of Altius Sports Partners, a consulting company dedicated to the NIL issue. Bueckers, a rising star at the most successful program in women’s college basketball, likely will be on the higher end of that earning potential for opportunities such as social media, appearances and autographs, Schwab said.

Kim DeCarolis, vice president of media and marketing for Element Sports Group, views Bueckers’ potential through the lens of basketball and her ability to relate to young female athletes.

“I think she’s done an incredible job in the sense that she’s going to have a lot of opportunities from a social standpoint,” DeCarolis said. “But I think you’re going to see the sport-focused brands come at her and want to work with her because she is such a representative of strong female athletes that people could look up to.”

On TikTok, Bueckers and her teammates join the latest dance crazes. While Bueckers may think she’s the best dancer, Starks often teases the 19-year-old about her rhythm. Once, a song Bueckers liked came on the radio in Starks’ car. Bueckers yelled for Starks to turn up the volume, and in the backseat, she threw on sunglasses and belted the tune word for word, with her arms in the air and her ponytail flinging back and forth.

“What you see on social media is definitely who Paige is — full of personality, a very happy person, fun to be around, just all around a really good person,” Starks said. “She really cares about the people she is around, so when she talks about wanting to do it for her team and wanting to win, that’s not something she’s just saying. That’s something that’s really her.”

The same is true of Bueckers’ Instagram, where she often posts about her teammates. Her first post from 2017 features a shot of her USA teammates. Her first to rack up 100,000-plus likes was a photo of her and Stephen Curry at the SC30 select camp in 2019. While at UConn, she’s posted photos of herself in her jersey (garnering over 200,000 likes each) and different outfits and of a team celebration, but none that showcase her individual accolades. Lately, her Instagram Stories have highlighted her teammates’ successes and other important issues.

Over the past year, Bueckers and her UConn teammates have been vocal about racial and social injustices and supporting Black Lives Matter. They were one of the first groups of collegiate athletes to release a statement after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, one of the epicenters of the protests last summer and the city just outside Bueckers’ hometown of Edina.

With reporters, Bueckers discussed her younger biracial brother, Drew, and how she wants him to grow up in a world that’s more accepting of people who look like him. Bueckers captioned one photo of Drew: “At what point do they stop looking at my little brother as a cute little boy and instead as a threat to society?”

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“With all the civil unrest and everything that was going on last summer, especially Minneapolis, using her platform and her voice to reach that amount of people is pretty powerful,” said Bob Bueckers, Paige’s father. “I think she really understands that and doesn’t take it for granted.”

Rebecca Lobo wouldn’t have liked arriving at UConn with the hype that surrounds Bueckers.

When Lobo was a freshman in 1991, the UConn women’s basketball program wasn’t yet a national phenomenon. Just doing an interview with a local newspaper at that time was a big deal. Before Lobo helped lead the Huskies to their first national title in 1995, she enjoyed anonymity on campus that doesn’t exist for current UConn freshmen.

By the time Breanna Stewart, the No. 1 recruit in 2012, arrived on campus, she had a few social media accounts but didn’t feel added pressure because of them. The expectations of playing at UConn and meeting the standards of the heralded program were challenging enough.

“It was just part of the deal of coming to UConn,” Stewart said. “As I went through high school and continued to put a spotlight on what I was doing as a basketball player, and having that continue to UConn where it’s obviously a giant target that automatically goes on your back, it’s something that’s normal.”

Bueckers joined a UConn team this season with seven freshmen and no seniors, pushing her into a big role right away. She’s started every game she’s played this season and leads the Huskies in scoring (19.9 points per game), assists (6.0), steals (2.3) and minutes (35.8). She is the only player since Maya Moore in 2007-08 to win both the Big East Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year awards. Bueckers also was named the Big East tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, earned a spot on the Associated Press’ All-America first team and is a finalist for the Naismith Women’s Trophy.

Bueckers’ most impressive trait has been her composure in the biggest moments. Against then-No. 1 South Carolina in February, she scored the game’s final 13 points, including a gravity-defying 3-pointer, to seal the victory. In UConn’s first-round NCAA Tournament win, she set a school freshman record for the most points scored in a debut with 24. Against Syracuse on Tuesday, she scored a team-high 20 points with five rebounds, four assists and three steals in the Huskies’ 83-47 victory to advance to the Sweet 16.

“Everything that Paige is doing is remarkable,” Lobo said. “But when you look at the roster, it’s even more remarkable because it’s still UConn. They still have been to 12 straight Final Fours. It’s still a program that comes with a lot of expectations, and she has more than lived up to any of the hype she had coming in.”

Social media has increased visibility for the women’s game, giving fans easier access to highlights and allowing memorable plays to go viral quickly. But it’s provided a larger and more accessible platform for criticism, too. “When I’m playing in college,” Lobo said, “mostly your beat writers are writing positive things about you, and there’s no trolls in the newspaper.”

Starks has traveled to UConn a few times this season since her daughter, T’Aire, is a graduate assistant for the Huskies. The visits have allowed her to catch up with Bueckers, too. During one of those conversations, Starks brought up social media vitriol. Bueckers replied with a belief she has long held: You don’t have to tear others down to build people up.

Bueckers turns to her circle when it gets tough, and they say she’s largely been able to handle the pressure while focusing on her ultimate goal of a national championship. “I think her praying and talking to God really keeps her right,” Bob Bueckers said. “She knows that there’s bigger plans for her and things of that nature, so I think that really keeps her grounded.”

Bob has had to tell family and friends at times not to engage with the haters on Paige’s posts. He gets especially annoyed with the trolls who leave sexist remarks — overplayed and ignorant comments such as telling women to get in the kitchen — not just at his daughter, but at the women’s basketball community as a whole.

Bueckers has also seen the comments from fans who despise UConn for its success, which includes 11 national titles in the last 30 years. During the team’s first NCAA Tournament game Sunday night, Twitter users were criticizing media outlets for focusing their coverage on Bueckers.

“It’s hard sometimes just seeing all the negative things people say about me and about UConn basketball and they don’t know us,” Bueckers said in a recent media interview. “I mean, they don’t know who we are, who we’re about, and if they would sit down and have a dinner with us, they would think we’re great people. That’s just who we are.”

Coach Geno Auriemma joined Instagram in May and posted a photo in October. “I only agreed to this so I can get more followers,” he captioned the photo of him and Bueckers in his office, offering a glimpse into their off-court relationship.

Bueckers recently called the Hall of Famer “Big G Man” in an Instagram Story, congratulating him on being named Big East Coach of the Year. Because of Bueckers’ personality, pass-first style and skill level, Lobo believes she embodies everything Auriemma appreciates in a player.

Auriemma has seemed to change with the times, too, dancing in the huddle after UConn’s Big East tournament championship game. One of the most memorable moments came when he called freshman Nika Mühl “his slime,” a popular term of endearment. Auriemma couldn’t really explain what it meant in his postgame press conference, but he picked it up nonetheless from Bueckers and Mühl.

As for her teammates, Bueckers has endeared herself to them with her unselfish play. She instinctively looks for open teammates, rather than taking the shot herself. At Auriema’s urging, she’s been shooting more than she would if it were up to her and finding the right moments to take over games.

And just like she did at Hopkins, Bueckers is UConn’s hype woman, reveling in the team’s success. After a teammate’s and-one in UConn’s win over High Point on Sunday, Bueckers screamed and flexed her outstretched arms as she met her to celebrate.

“I think that as much as anything else is one of the reasons this is all working her freshman year,” Lobo said. “She’s easy to embrace because she’s just that effervescent person who celebrates her teammates more than she ever celebrates herself.”

The personality that’s turned Bueckers into a social media sensation comes out most naturally on the basketball court.

“Now you’re able to watch her on the national stage, and now people are starting to see what all this hype was about, what all these videos were about,” Starks said. “Now they get to see the kid herself.”

(Graphic: Wes McCabe / The Athletic; photos by Benjamin Solomon / Getty Images; David Butler II / USA Today; Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)