Katie Manganelli
Nov 19, 2023
UConn’s Paige Bueckers grew up watching basketball in her home state of Minnesota. She has memories of Lynx and Golden Gophers games at Williams Arena — she attended those games starting when she was 10 or 12 years old.
Now, Bueckers will return to The Barn, but not as a spectator.
“It’s super surreal because I grew up going to games at The Barn and watching the Gophers and watching the Lynx play there,” Bueckers said to the Hartford Courant. “So to be playing there, where I grew up, my childhood, at my dream school wearing a UConn jersey in that arena, it’s like a surreal feeling for me.”
The Huskies are set to take on the Gophers in Minnesota at 5 p.m. ET Sunday in a homecoming game for Bueckers. Bueckers will be taking the same court her childhood idols took over a decade ago.
“I envisioned it when I was younger,” Bueckers said. “Just wanting to be the people who were playing on the court. As a young kid, that was where I wanted to be. You never knew what the future was going to hold, but it was something I aspired to do.”
UConn’s head coach Geno Auriemma goes out of his way to schedule homecoming games for his seniors, including two international matchups this season — one for Nika Mühl in Croatia during the Huskies’ preseason tour and one for Aaliyah Edwards in Toronto, which will be played in December.
Williams Arena is likely to be packed when the local star makes her return — more than 10,000 seats are expected to be filled when Bueckers takes the court at the 14,625-seat arena.
Among those 10,000 people will be Bueckers’ family, friends and other Minnesotans in the basketball community. And Bueckers credits these people with her upbringing.
“You often hear the phrase ‘Minnesota nice,’” Bueckers told CT Insider. “I think everything around here, just everybody knows everybody. Everybody’s nice to each other. Everybody’s like family once you meet them. So, I think that just is sort of why I love relationships, why I love people so much and why I love getting to know people so much and I think that has a lot to do with where I’m from.”
But for Bueckers, a homecoming game isn’t just about seeing family and friends. It’s about being who Rebekkah Brunson and Lindsey Whalen were to her for other young girls.
“I want to be an inspiration to kids,” Bueckers said. “I want people to see that injuries happen, adversity happens, but what do you do to come back from it? How hard do you attack that process? I want people to see passion when they see me play, fire and energy and that I love the game.”
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Emma Hruby
Mar 19, 2024
Utah senior gymnast Abby Paulson and her parents are going viral for her beam routine, which she scored a perfect 10 on during her senior meet.
It was just her second 10 ever, after Paulson earned a 10 her freshman year on beam.
On Friday, Paulson got another – and the Utah gymnastics’ video team was able to capture both her reaction and her parents’. What’s more, is that Paulson had switched up her beam song from Taylor Swift’s “Timeless” to Swift’s “Never Grow Up” in honor of senior night.
She says that it was a way to honor the relationship between herself and a friend from high school, with the pair parting ways for college.
“She was moving to Canada, and I was coming here, and I felt like it was very fitting to finish out my career in the Huntsman with the same song,” she said.
Paulson’s dad Brandon Paulson, a former Olympic silver medalist in wrestling, was one of just many having an emotional reaction that night.
The senior says she was “really grateful” to be able to get another 10 on beam in her career, and to have it come at home.
“I’ve just had a really emotional week,” Abby Paulson said. “When I was up on the beam I was trying to focus on my routine, focus on singing my song instead of focusing on the fact it was my last beam routine in the Huntsman. But I really couldn’t hold it together when I landed. I’m just really grateful for everything, and the fans and my teammates.”
Emma Hruby
Mar 19, 2024
Sophia Smith took no time to get on the scoresheet in the NWSL.
In Saturday’s 5-4 loss to Kansas City, Smith had two goals for the brace, and to help the Thorns attempt the comeback. Ahead of the opener, Smith spoke with ESPN FC about the difficulties in the start of the season, particularly given the transition back from time with the USWNT in the Concacaf W Gold Cup.
“It’s always hard. This time in particular, I would say it’s a little bit harder just because you know we missed basically all of preseason with the Gold Cup,” she said. “And you kind of look around and we have some new faces, so it’s a matter of getting to know your teammates while also realizing you have to turn around and play a game together.
“So it’s hard, but we have the best group right now. The new players have come in and played their role, and it’s exciting.”
Ahead of the season opener, Smith says she had just two training sessions with Portland where the team was together in its entirety.
“It’s definitely not ideal, but I think for the players that got to play in the Gold Cup, we do have games under our belt now,” she added. “Which I think can only help us going into season. It’s not like we’re coming off of doing nothing, we were doing a lot while we were away and I think we can contribute to the game in that way.”
Smith had a good Gold Cup, scoring a goal and a penalty in the team’s semifinal game against Canada. It was her first PK taken since missing one in the World Cup, where the team suffered its earliest exit ever in the round of 16.
"It's been an emotional ride for me personally since the World Cup, so this is just a big relief and I couldn't be more proud of our team,” Smith said postgame. "To miss a PK in the World Cup takes a toll on you mentally and then I feel like since then, I've just been trying to work my way back.
“I obviously hadn't had a goal this tournament and as a forward, it's hard to not get that and help the team in that way. So I think that goal was just a relief of a lot of emotions."
After getting the scoring going in the Gold Cup, Smith has immediately translated that to the NWSL. And on Sunday, she became the third player in the league to score in her team’s season opener in four different NWSL seasons – and the first to do so in four-straight season openers.
Emma Hruby
Mar 19, 2024
Some Stanford students aren’t one-hundred percent confident in their team’s chances to win the women's college basketball national championship.
In “Cam on Campus,” in which Stanford’s Cameron Brink interviews her fellow classmates for Just Women’s Sports, Brink chats with a trio of “Chads and Brads,” one wearing a Texas shirt. But when asked who he thought was going to win the national title, he didn’t say Texas or Stanford.
He said Iowa, while on Stanford’s campus, wearing a Texas baseball jersey – all while talking to Brink, a national title winner herself.
His friend, of course, was confident in the Cardinals’ chances, picking Stanford to win the national title this year.
The Cardinal are a 2-seed after having lost the Pac-12 tournament final to USC and will play Norfolk State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Watch the full episode of Cam on Campus below:
Emma Hruby
Mar 19, 2024
LSU was named a 3-seed for the NCAA tournament, placed in the same bracket as both No. 1 seed Iowa and No. 2 seed UCLA.
It’s been tabbed as one of the toughest regions, and LSU coach Kim Mulkey even conceded as much when speaking with the media.
“Initially I just thought, ‘Oh, this is a tough, tough region,’” Mulkey said. “And I don’t care about the seeding, you just want to get a first and second round game at home. I’m thinking off the top of my head what I saw, saw a lot of regions with matchups with people we already played, not just in our region but in other regions.”
Mulkey then pointed to South Carolina and Notre Dame being the 1- and 2-seeds in the same region, having already played to open the season in Paris. Colorado, who beat the Tigers at the beginning of the year, is also in LSU’s region.
“I guess with so many teams you can’t avoid it,” she said.
There will also be the possibility of a rematch between Louisville and LSU’s Hailey Van Lith. Mulkey said that some of the team members were chuckling at the possibility when the announcement was made.
“Hailey is a baller,” she said. “She had a great career there and three wonderful years. … If that matchup happens, she’ll be ready.”
