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Geno Auriemma Asserts Paige Bueckers Being 'Delusional' Aides Her UConn Greatness

UConn Huskies coach Geno Auriemma described one of Paige Bueckers' best qualities in a hilarious way.
Grant Young|
Mar 8, 2025; Uncasville, CT, USA; UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma talks to guard Paige Bueckers (5) from the sideline as they take on the St. John's Red Storm at Mohegan Sun Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images
Mar 8, 2025; Uncasville, CT, USA; UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma talks to guard Paige Bueckers (5) from the sideline as they take on the St. John's Red Storm at Mohegan Sun Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images | David Butler II-Imagn Images

If the UConn Huskies women's basketball team is going to win their first NCAA national championship since 2016, star guard Paige Bueckers will have to play like one of the country's best basketball players.

Luckily for UConn, Bueckers is one of the country's best basketball players — and she knows it. Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma alluded to this unassailable belief from Bueckers during his March 20 appearance on the Good Game With Sarah Spain podcast.

"One of Paige's biggest strengths is the fact that she's delusional," Auriemma said. "That just helps her so much, and that carries her through all those things you're talking about. That when she's hurt, she acts like, 'It doesn't bother me, I'm fine, everything is good'... But meanwhile, that's not even close to the truth. Because when she goes home every night back in those days, from not being able to play, not being able to do the one thing she loves in life more than almost anything.

"So the fact that she doesn't allow anything ever to get in the way of 'I'm great, I'm the best, no one's ever been as good as me, I can be better than anybody that ever lived, every time I miss a shot, it's an act of God,'" Auriemma continued. "That, I think more than anything — and I think all the great ones have a fair amount of that... and it's fun to watch players play like that. And I think everyone in the program really took a hit when she wasn't playing, for sure."

The good news is that Bueckers (and her entire UConn squad) is fully healthy ahead of this 2025 NCAA Tournament.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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