UConn's Geno Auriemma Admits Love for 'Delusional' Part of Paige Bueckers
The most notorious player-coach relationship in women's college basketball is between UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma and his star player Paige Bueckers.
Not only have these two high-profile figures in the sport spent five seasons and produced countless memorable moments together, but there's a clear comfortability between them that breeds honesty and authenticity — for better or for worse.
This is shown by how Auriemma will call Bueckers out after games when he needs more from her and how they can tease one another when they're in the middle of winning streaks.
Bueckers was the cover person and a featured story in a February 25 issue of GQ. And at one point in Leah Faye Cooper's February 25 article on her, Auriemma and Bueckers opened up about their relationship.
“He tells you what you don’t want to hear a lot of the time, and that’s sort of why you choose to come here,” Bueckers says of Auriemma. “I’ve always been a person who had excuses for things—a reason why I didn’t do this, a reason why I did do this. He’s really pushed me to break those habits and find no excuses.”
Auriemma is then quoted saying, “There’s a delusional side of Paige that I love. She has to know better, but she comes across as, ‘I have never missed a shot; if I do miss, it’s because something happened. I have never fouled anybody in my life; the refs are always wrong.’ So there’s always this back-and-forth between me and her, because I know what kids want. They want to do it their way, they want it to be a little easier.
"The only problem is, that’s not what they need. They need the struggle of it. They need to see what it feels like to make sacrifices, to give up yourself, and have the failures that strengthen you and make you ready for those next steps in your life. That failure part I think is so important,” he continued.
This week on #GQHype: Paige Bueckers
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) February 25, 2025
With elite skills, massive NIL deals, and an army of TikTok stans, the UConn star embodies the excitement — and the unprecedented power — of the new era of women’s basketball https://t.co/H1Nk1sMjtv pic.twitter.com/1q8d3x2gsk
Time will tell whether the failures Bueckers has experienced at UConn to this point will culminate in a 2025 NCAA national championship.
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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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