Age, Biography, and Wiki
Paige Bueckers, born on October 20, 2001, is a talented American basketball player who has made significant strides in her young career. Born in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, she rose to prominence during her high school years, playing for Hopkins High School. Bueckers is known for her exceptional skills, which earned her numerous prestigious awards, including the 2019-20 Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year and the 2020 Naismith Prep Player of the Year.
| Occupation | Sports |
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| Date of Birth | 20 October 2001 |
| Age | 23 Years |
| Birth Place | Edina, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Libra |
| Country | U.S |
Height, Weight, and Measurements
Paige Bueckers stands at a height of 5'10" according to some sources, although others list her height as 6'0". Her weight is reported to be around 140 pounds.
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| Weight | 140 pounds |
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Dating & Relationship Status
There is no publicly available information regarding Paige Bueckers' current dating or relationship status.
Louis Park. She started playing basketball at age five. As a child, she also played Little League Baseball as a catcher, as well as football and soccer, but focused on basketball by first grade. Bueckers became friends with National Basketball Association (NBA) player Jalen Suggs while in elementary school. She was coached by her father in basketball until seventh grade. Bueckers drew inspiration from NBA players LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, and Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) players Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird. She grew up supporting the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA.
Bueckers' father, Bob Bueckers, is a software engineer and played high school basketball as a point guard. Her mother, Amy Fuller (née Dettbarn), represented the University of St. Thomas in cross country and track and field. When Bueckers was three years old, her parents divorced. She remained with her father while her mother remarried and moved to Billings, Montana. Her father also began a new relationship and later had a son, Drew. Bueckers has another younger brother, Ryan, and a younger sister, Lauren.
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Net Worth
As a student-athlete, Paige Bueckers does not have a widely reported net worth. However, her fame and achievements in basketball suggest that she has potential for future financial success, particularly through endorsements and professional basketball contracts once she turns pro.
Career Highlights
Bueckers has had a distinguished basketball career, starting from her early years. She began playing basketball at the age of five and quickly developed her skills under the guidance of her father, Bob Bueckers, who was also a point guard in high school. She has been part of several USA Basketball teams, including the U-19 and U-17 World Championship teams. At the University of Connecticut, she continues to make a name for herself as one of the top players in college basketball.
Nicknamed "Paige Buckets", Bueckers attended Hopkins High School in Minnetonka, Minnesota and was ranked as the number one recruit in her class by ESPN, receiving national high school player of the year honors. In her first season at UConn, Bueckers became the first freshman to be named national women's player of the year and helped her team reach the Final Four. She missed most of her sophomore season and her entire junior season with knee injuries but led UConn to the 2022 national title game. Bueckers helped the Huskies return to the Final Four as a redshirt junior, before winning her first national championship and receiving the Wade Trophy as a senior. She was a three-time unanimous first-team All-American in college and has the highest career scoring average in UConn history (19.9).
As a junior on February 1, 2019, Bueckers scored a career-high 43 points in a 69–66 win over Wayzata High School and surpassed 2,000 career points. On March 16, despite having an illness that had caused her to vomit earlier in the day, she recorded 13 points, seven assists, five rebounds and five steals as her team won the Class 4A state championship, 74–45, over Stillwater Area High School. Hopkins finished the season with a 32–0 record. Bueckers averaged 24.4 points, 5.1 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 4.6 steals per game, repeating as Star Tribune Metro Player of the Year and Minnesota Gatorade Player of the Year. She was one of three finalists for the Gatorade National Player of the Year award. That year, Bueckers moved to the Minnesota Metro Stars AAU program, following her former North Tartan coach Tara Starks. In August 2019, she was named AAU Player of the Year by Prep Girls Hoops. On January 29, 2020, during her senior season, Bueckers became the first female high school player to be featured on the cover of basketball magazine Slam. Toward the end of the season, she suffered from a stress reaction in her right leg due to overuse. Bueckers sometimes wore a walking boot as a preventative measure, was limited in practice and missed the first game of the state tournament. She led Hopkins to the Class 4A state championship game, which was canceled on March 13 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Bueckers was selected to play at the McDonald's All-American Game and the Jordan Brand Classic, two prestigious high school all-star games, but both were canceled due to the pandemic. She averaged 21.4 points, 9.4 assists, 5.4 steals and five rebounds per game, leading Hopkins to another undefeated season and 62 consecutive wins. Bueckers was again honored as Star Tribune Metro Player of the Year, becoming the award's first three-time winner. She was named Gatorade Female High School Athlete of the Year, Gatorade National Player of the Year, Naismith Prep Player of the Year, Morgan Wootten National Player of the Year, and Minnesota Miss Basketball. Bueckers finished as Hopkins' all-time leader in points (2,877), assists (795) and steals (574).
Entering her freshman season at UConn, sports publications described Bueckers as the program's most hyped recruit since Breanna Stewart in 2012. Unlike Stewart and other former UConn stars, she became her team's leader from the beginning of her college career. Megan Walker, UConn's top scorer from the previous year, had opted to forgo her senior season to enter the 2020 WNBA draft, leaving the 2020–21 team with no seniors. Bueckers was unanimously selected as the Big East Preseason Freshman of the Year by the league's coaches.
Bueckers was cleared to return against St. John's on February 25, 2022. She came off the bench for the first time in her career and scored eight points, playing only 13 minutes due to a minutes restriction, in a 93–38 victory. Bueckers continued to receive limited playing time until the NCAA tournament, and UConn won the Big East tournament despite her scoring only two points in the championship game against Villanova. Her offensive production also declined from before her injury. On March 28, at the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, Bueckers led her team to a 91–87 double-overtime win over top-seeded NC State, as UConn reached its 14th consecutive Final Four. She scored a game-high 27 points on 10-15 from the field, including 15 points in the two overtime periods (4-5 from the field and 6-6 from the free-throw line), and was named MOP of the Bridgeport Regional. In the Final Four, Bueckers recorded 14 points, five assists and four rebounds in a 63–58 victory against top-seeded Stanford, the defending champions. In a 64–49 loss to top-seeded South Carolina at the national championship game, Bueckers was the only UConn player to score in double digits as she posted 14 points and six rebounds, and was named to the Final Four All-Tournament Team. Bueckers was an AP All-American Honorable Mention selection. As a sophomore, she averaged 14.6 points, four rebounds and 3.9 assists per game.
On August 9, 2023, Bueckers announced that she was fully cleared to return to the court; two months earlier, she had been cleared for all activities except for five-on-five play. Entering her redshirt junior season, she was named an AP preseason All-American and Big East Preseason Player of the Year. On November 8, Bueckers made her season debut, recording eight points, seven rebounds and four assists in 21 minutes in a 102–58 win over Dayton. On November 16, she scored 31 points in a 78–67 loss to AP No. 2 UCLA at the Cayman Islands Classic. Bueckers tied Maya Moore as the fastest player in UConn history to reach 1,000 career points (55 games) on December 10, scoring 26 points in a 76–64 victory against AP No. 24 North Carolina. On January 17, 2024, she posted a season-high 32 points and seven rebounds in an 83–59 win over Seton Hall. At the end of the regular season, Bueckers was named Big East Player of the Year and was a unanimous first-team all-conference selection. She helped UConn win the Big East tournament, where she was named MOP after recording 27 points and five blocks in a 78–42 win over Georgetown in the final. In the second round of the 2024 NCAA tournament, Bueckers tied her season-high of 32 points, while recording 10 rebounds, six assists and four steals, in a 72–64 win over Syracuse. In the Elite Eight, she posted 28 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in an 80–73 victory over one-seed USC, earning Portland 3 Regional MOP honors. She scored 17 points in a 71–69 loss to one-seed Iowa in the Final Four.
Bueckers entered her senior season as an AP preseason All-American and the Big East Preseason Player of the Year. On November 7, 2024, she opened her season with 13 points, seven assists, and five steals in an 86–32 win over Boston University. Eight days later, Bueckers scored 29 points, including 16 in the first quarter, in a 69–58 win over AP No. 14 North Carolina. On November 27, she scored 29 points again, leading UConn to a 73–60 victory over AP No. 18 Ole Miss at the Baha Mar Championship final. Bueckers suffered a left knee sprain after colliding with an opposing player against Villanova on January 5, 2025 and missed her team's next two games. As part of an 18-point effort against Seton Hall on January 19, she became the fastest player in program history to reach 2,000 career points after 102 career games. On February 16, Bueckers recorded 12 points and 10 assists for her first double-double of the season, helping UConn upset AP No. 4 South Carolina, 87–58. During her final game of the regular season, she was inducted into the Huskies of Honor, a program that honors All-American players at UConn. Bueckers received the Big East Player of the Year award for the third time in her career, and was unanimously named first-team All-Big East. In the 2025 Big East tournament final, she recorded 24 points and eight rebounds in a 70–50 victory over Creighton. She became the first player to win Big East tournament MOP three times.
Bueckers opened the 2025 NCAA tournament against Arkansas State in the first round and scored 11 points in a 103-34 win. In the second round of the tournament, she scored 34 points in a 91–57 win over South Dakota State. In the Sweet 16, she scored a career-high 40 points, including 29 in the second half, in an 82–59 victory over Oklahoma. She became the fourth UConn player to record at least 40 points in a game and the first to do so in the NCAA tournament. In the Elite Eight, Bueckers posted 31 points and six assists, leading her team to a 78–64 win against top-seeded USC and being named MOP of the Spokane 4 Regional. She tied her own program record with three consecutive 30-point games, while scoring a total of 105 points, the most by a UConn player over a three-game span. Bueckers won her first national championship, scoring 17 points in an 82–59 win over top-seeded South Carolina in the title game on April 6, 2025. She surpassed Maya Moore for the most career points by a UConn player in the NCAA tournament and moved to third among all players. Bueckers was a unanimous first-team All-American for the third time in her career, received the Wade Trophy as the top NCAA Division I player, and won her second Nancy Lieberman Award as the top Division I point guard. She finished her career with the highest scoring average (19.9) and the third-most points (2,439) in program history. On May 5, Bueckers was announced as the winner of the 2025 Honda Sports Award.
Bueckers was selected as the first overall pick in the 2025 WNBA draft by the Dallas Wings. On May 16, 2025, she made her regular season debut, scoring 10 points in a 112–78 loss to the Minnesota Lynx. Five days later, Bueckers had her first career double-double, with 12 points and 10 assists in an 85–81 loss to the Lynx.
The following statistics represent Bueckers's collegiate career at the University of Connecticut. {| class="wikitable" ! Year ! Team ! GP ! GS ! MPG ! FG% ! 3P% ! FT% ! RPG ! APG ! SPG ! BPG ! TO ! PPG
In November 2021, Bueckers signed her first two major endorsement deals with StockX and Gatorade, becoming the first college athlete to sign with Gatorade. On September 6, 2023, Bueckers signed a multiyear deal with Nike; as part of the deal, she promoted the company's new GT Hustle 2 shoe. Bueckers also has a special colorway of the GT Hustle 3, making her the first college athlete to have her own Nike shoe. She has also signed deals with Crocs, Bose and Nerf. She is an advisor for Overtime Select, a basketball league created by sports media company, Overtime, for girls high school players.
On February 7, 2022, she announced a partnership with Cash App, through which she launched the Paige Bueckers Foundation, aimed at promoting social justice and creating opportunities for families and children. On March 31, Bueckers became the first student-athlete brand ambassador for Chegg. Working with the nonprofit branch of Chegg, she partnered with hunger relief company Goodr to host a free pop-up grocery market in Minneapolis to address food insecurity among college students. In the following year, she opened another store in Hopkins West Junior High School, where she had attended.
Bueckers has been recognised as an influencer in basketball, fashion, and culture. During her senior season, Star Tribune columnist Chip Scoggins compared her influence in the state to that of Lindsay Whalen, writing, "A generation of girls—now young women—throughout the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota grew up idolizing [ Whalen] as a basketball star. Bueckers is having that same impact on a new generation of girls." In 2022, Bueckers was named to the Fortune 40 Under 40 list, which honors influential young people in business, and The Athletic's College Sports 40 Under 40 list, which recognizes the most influential young people in the college sports industry. On May 16, 2025, the day of Bueckers' WNBA debut, her hometown of Hopkins, Minnesota, renamed itself "Paige Bueckers, Minnesota" for the day.
Social Network
Paige Bueckers is active on social media platforms, where she has a significant following. She often engages with her fans and shares updates about her basketball journey.
Bueckers is represented by agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas of Wasserman. She signed with Wasserman as a name, image and likeness (NIL) client in August 2021, about one month after the NCAA allowed student-athletes to be compensated for the use of their NIL. Described as the "face of NIL" for women's basketball by The Athletic in 2022, industry analysts have projected her as having one of the highest earning potentials from NIL among college athletes, because of both her success in basketball and her large social media following. On April 4, 2022, her Instagram account reached one million followers, making her reportedly the first women's college basketball player to achieve the mark. She was also the inaugural winner of the Best NIL Athlete of the Year award by Sports Business Journal.
Education
Paige Bueckers attended Hopkins High School in Minnesota, graduating in 2020. She is currently pursuing a degree in human development & family sciences at the University of Connecticut, where she is also an active member of the women's basketball team. In May 2024, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in human development & family sciences.
Paige Madison Bueckers (born October 20, 2001) is an American professional basketball player for the Dallas Wings of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played college basketball for the UConn Huskies.
In seventh grade, Bueckers played for the tenth-grade and junior varsity basketball teams at Hopkins High School in Minnetonka. By that time, she was also playing year-round with North Tartan, an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) program competing in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League, a national circuit. Bueckers grew four inches in the year before her eighth-grade season. She joined Hopkins' varsity team in eighth grade under head coach Brian Cosgriff, averaging 8.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.4 steals per game. She led her team in three-point shooting and ranked second in assists. Hopkins finished with a 28–3 record and a runner-up finish at the Class 4A state tournament, where Bueckers was named to the All-Tournament Team.
Bueckers made her freshman season debut for Hopkins High School on November 25, 2016, recording 28 points, five steals and four assists in a 74–34 win over Osseo Senior High School. That year, she assumed a more important role than in her eighth-grade season and became one of the team's leading scorers and passers. As a freshman, Bueckers averaged 20.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.5 steals and 4.1 assists per game, earning All-Metro first team honors from the Star Tribune. She led Hopkins to a 31–1 record, its only loss coming against Elk River High School at the Class 4A state championship. Bueckers made the Class 4A All-Tournament Team.
In January 2018, as a sophomore, Bueckers was sidelined with an ankle injury that had been hurting her for the first two months of the season. She finished the season averaging 22.3 points, 6.8 assists and 5.9 rebounds per game. Bueckers helped Hopkins to a 28–4 record but suffered her third straight loss at the Class 4A state title game, despite leading all scorers with 37 points. She was named Star Tribune Metro Player of the Year, becoming the first sophomore to win the award since its creation 34 years earlier. Bueckers was also recognized as Minnesota Gatorade Player of the Year for athletic excellence, academic achievement and exemplary character.
Bueckers has been regarded as one of the best players in Minnesota girls' high school basketball history. During her senior season, Star Tribune columnist Chip Scoggins compared her influence in the state to that of Lindsay Whalen, writing, "A generation of girls—now young women—throughout the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota grew up idolizing [ Whalen] as a basketball star. Bueckers is having that same impact on a new generation of girls."
Bueckers was a five-star recruit and ranked the number one player in the 2020 class by ESPN. By eighth grade and age 14, she had received scholarship offers from NCAA Division I basketball programs at Minnesota, Iowa State and Illinois. On April 1, 2019, Bueckers announced her commitment to University of Connecticut. The other finalists she was considering were Notre Dame, Oregon State, Oregon, UCLA, Minnesota, South Carolina, Maryland, Texas and Duke. On November 13, Bueckers signed a National Letter of Intent with UConn. She became the 11th number-one recruit to sign and attend UConn since 1998. Bueckers was drawn to UConn because she felt that head coach Geno Auriemma would maximize her talents, and because of the university's reputation and enthusiasm for women's basketball. She also believed that she could immediately have a key role at UConn, with the expected graduation of point guard Crystal Dangerfield, and was attracted by its team-oriented play style.
On March 21, Bueckers recorded 24 points, nine rebounds, six assists, and four steals in a 102–59 win over 16th-seeded High Point in the first round of the 2021 NCAA tournament. Her 24 points were the most by a UConn player in their tournament debut. Bueckers scored a game-high 28 points in a 69–67 win over second-seeded Baylor in the Elite Eight to help UConn reach its 13th straight Final Four. She was recognized as MOP of the River Walk Regional. At the Final Four, UConn was upset by third-seeded Arizona, 69–59, and finished the season with a 28–2 record. Bueckers was named to the Final Four All-Tournament Team. She won all the national player of the year awards she was eligible for—AP Player of the Year, Naismith College Player of the Year, USBWA Women's National Player of the Year and the John R. Wooden Award—becoming the first freshman to receive any of the awards. Bueckers was a unanimous first-team All-American, earning first-team All-American honors from the AP and the USBWA, and made the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Coaches' All-America Team. She was the first freshman to win the Nancy Lieberman Award as the top point guard in the nation. Bueckers shared two major NCAA Division I freshman of the year awards with Caitlin Clark of Iowa—the Tamika Catchings Award, presented by the USBWA, and the WBCA Freshman of the Year award. As a freshman, she averaged 20 points, 5.8 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game, shooting 46.4 percent from three-point range. Bueckers recorded 168 assists, the most by a freshman in program history, despite a shortened season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2021, she won the Best Female College Athlete ESPY Award. Analysts have considered Bueckers' freshman season to be among the best in UConn and NCAA history.
Bueckers was named to the university's dean's list her freshman year, which required a GPA of at least 3.72, and was involved in social justice causes.
On April 30, 2021, Bueckers underwent surgery on her right ankle to repair an osteochondral defect, joint damage involving the bone and cartilage. She could not practice for most of the offseason while recovering from surgery, but was cleared to return by October. Bueckers entered her sophomore season as a unanimous selection for both Big East Preseason Player of the Year and the AP preseason All-America team. Among the newcomers to UConn was Azzi Fudd, the number one recruit in the 2021 class and Bueckers' close friend.
On August 3, 2022, UConn announced that Bueckers had torn the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee during a pick-up game on August 1 and would miss the entire 2022–23 season. She received an additional year of college eligibility after redshirting the season. On September 1, Bueckers announced she would return to UConn for the 2023–24 season instead of declaring for the 2023 WNBA draft, for which she was eligible. In her absence, the team finished the 2022–23 season with a 31–6 record, winning Big East regular season and tournament titles. UConn lost to Ohio State in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, marking the first time they did not reach the Final Four since 2008.
Since high school, Bueckers has been labeled a generational talent by analysts and coaches, including South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley and Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve. In her freshman season in college, she was proclaimed "basketball's next big thing" by USA Today.
