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Paige Bueckers Explains 'Wow' Difference from UConn to WNBA With Wings

Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers has already noticed one major difference from UConn to the WNBA.
Grant Young|
Apr 5, 2025; Tampa, FL, USA; UConn Huskies guard Paige Bueckers (5) talks to media before the NCAA Woman’s Final practice at Amalie Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Apr 5, 2025; Tampa, FL, USA; UConn Huskies guard Paige Bueckers (5) talks to media before the NCAA Woman’s Final practice at Amalie Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

The brief break that Paige Bueckers had between her final UConn Huskies season (which finished with a national championship) and her rookie WNBA campaign has already ended, as Sunday, April 27, marks the start of WNBA training camp.

All indications are that Bueckers is already acclimating well to her new Dallas Wings teammates. And given the intrigue about Bueckers' adjustment from college to the WNBA, there were plenty of journalists and reporters at Dallas' practice on Sunday to watch Bueckers playing a professional practice for the first time.

Typically, the biggest adjustment that rookies have to make from college to the professional game is physical, given the WNBA is full of grown women who have years of elite weight training and conditioning under their belts. And Bueckers shared this same sentiment when speaking with the media on April 27.

When asked the biggest difference from college to the pros, Bueckers said, "Honestly, screens I got hit by. That would be the first, like, 'Wow. Okay, this is different.'

"And obviously, the floor is a little strange, you've got defensive three seconds in the lane, offensive three seconds in the lane. So that's a little bit different," Bueckers said, per an X post from Dorothy J. Gentry of NABJ Sports. "And then the pace, and obviously the physicality of stuff they let go in the W."

It will be interesting to see how Bueckers adjusts to the more physical WNBA game, and whether it will require her to have her minutes managed by the Wings' coaching staff.

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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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