By Mallory Mattingly
UCONN women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers finally won her National Championship title, and she credits her faith.
Bueckers’ college career took off right away during her freshman year but was later be plagued by a significant ACL injury.
After she and her team won the National Championship on Sunday night, Bueckers shared what she’d tell her freshmen self five years later.
“It’s not always pretty,” Bueckers said via an Instagram video posted by The Player’s Tribune. “There are a lot of ups and downs, some days where you don’t want to do it anymore, and some days you want to quit. Through all of that, on the other side of a hard time is an extremely big blessing. As long as you keep the faith, keep the work ethic, keep being a great teammate and keep being a great leader, things are always going to turn around for you, and even if they don’t, you’re putting your head down and working and you know you’re doing it the right way. Keep the faith always. There’s a reason and a purpose for everything.”
Immediately following the win on Sunday Night, Bueckers expressed to ESPN’s Holly Rowe what it means to end her career on a high.
Related: UConn Basketball Star Paige Bueckers Relies On God After ACL Injury
“Unreal,” she said with tear-filled eyes. “Just so much gratitude for everything this program has meant to me, for how much my teammates mean to me, and this is from the top to the bottom. Our managers are here from stores, our practice players are here from stores, and they made us work our butt off this entire year. Our GAs, our managers, our assistants, our masseuse, our everybody. I can’t even name all the people just everybody here. It takes a village just to do what we do here, and everybody’s important to the team’s success.”
“If I could say one thing it would be to stand firm in who you are,” the athlete continued. “There’s a lot of people who write you off, there are a lot of narratives that can be put to try to put you in a box to tell you you got to do this, you got to do that, you got to be more like that player. Stay firm in who you are. There are people who doubt you because they think you’re doing it on your strength alone, but we lean on God’s strength here and through God’s power, for God’s purpose. We’re not doing this alone.”
Bueckers ended her senior on the highest note possible — one National Championship, 2025 BIG EAST Player of the Year and 2025 All-BIG EAST First Team. Bueckers averaged 20 points per game, with 4.4 rebounds, and 4.6 assists for her final year, according to ESPN.
Read Next: Paige Bueckers Praises God as She Leads UConn to Final Four: ‘Living Testimony’
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