STORRS, Conn. — UConn star Paige Bueckers was named to the Associated Presses's women's basketball Preseason All-American team on Tuesday.
Bueckers is posed to return for her senior year with the Huskies and is hoping to finally end the program's long NCAA Championship drought.
She joined LSU’s Angel Reese, Iowa's Caitlin Clark Indiana's Mackenzie Holmes, Stanford's Cameron Brink, and Virginia Tech's Elizabeth Kitley, who were all named to AP's preseason team.
Bueckers is back and healthy for the first time in two seasons. She missed all of last year with a torn ACL in her left knee. That came after she missed most of her sophomore year with a lateral meniscus tear and a tibial plateau fracture.
“I’m feeling much stronger. I feel more confident in my body than I ever have,” said Bueckers, who was the AP player of the year as a freshman in 2021. “When I step on the court, I feel like I’m ready for whatever the defense is going to throw at me and I know people this year are going to test me, push me around, make sure I’m really healthy, make sure my knee’s really good and use physicality as a weapon against me, so I’m ready for that.”
Bueckers won the award for national player of the year as a freshman back in 2020, helping lead the Huskies to the Final Four,
UConn women's basketball opens its season on November 8 at home against Dayton.
*The Associated Press contributed to this report
Daniel Dashefsky is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at ddashefsky@fox61.com.
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