UCONN Women’s Basketball Star Leads Team to Championship with ‘Crazy Faith’
By Movieguide® Contributor
After missing over a year of basketball because of a torn ACL, Paige Bueckers returned to the court for the 2023-2024 season to showcase her talents and abilities once again.
Not only did the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team go undefeated in the regular conference season, but Bueckers also led her team to a conference championship.
She shared the win with her fans on social media in a series of photos with her and her team celebrating.
“Crazy Faith & a hol lot of heart. Big East Champs… Proud would be the under statement of the year,” Bueckers wrote.
This season, Bueckers has averaged a career-high 21.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists, and she’s also shooting 53.8% per game, stats that earned her the Big East Player of the Year award.
She tore her ACL in 2022 but kept her focus on God. Movieguide® reported:
Before the surgery to repair her torn ACL, Bueckers wrote on Instagram, “It’s so so crazy because you work so hard to get back healthy, you feel stronger than ever, and you are playing your best basketball and with one sudden movement it all shifts.”
“It’s hard trying to make sense of it all now, but I can’t help but think that God is using me as a testimony as to how much you can overcome with Him by your side,” she continued. “Some little kid that just tore their ACL or had a major surgery might need this story.”
Following her return to the court, Bueckers’ mom, Amy Fuller, shared that she’s seen her daughter play with joy again.
“It’s bittersweet because of what’s happened, but to see her joy on the court like sticking her tongue out, flexing, it was everything,” Fuller told the Hartford Courant. “It was the first time I saw that spark, that joy — not only in her but the whole team in general. They all looked connected together. They’re having fun…to see them all just step up and play together, win together, I’m getting emotional again.”
Bueckers and her UCONN team are far from done this season. The NCAA women’s basketball tournament brackets are still not out, but UCONN knows its journey won’t be easy.
They will eventually have to face the likes of Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes, Kamilla Cardoso and the South Carolina Gamecocks or even Angel Reese and the LSU Tigers.
Movieguide® previously reported on the athlete’s faith:
University of Connecticut women’s basketball player Paige Bueckers is praising God for a phenomenal start to the season after suffering from a torn ACL last season.
She’s already helping her team find victory.
In her first season as a Husky, Bueckers averaged 20.0 points per game. This season, with just 18 games in, she is averaging 19.8 and is expected to increase that number.
“Blessed Beyond Measure,” the athlete posted on Instagram.
She also included a snippet from her daily devotional: “Your breakthrough could be just around the corner or a long way down the road. Either way, victory is yours. You will see God work through the hard paths and bring good out of it. You will sense his presence during the long wait, see his victorious hand in your battles and experience sweet joy in seeing his touch upon your life. In the meantime, trust him with every detail of your life- big and small, worry about nothing but pray about everything and cling onto hope at all costs.”
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