Women's Fastbreak On SI

UConn's Geno Auriemma Ribs Paige Bueckers With Minutes Restriction Enforcement

UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma had a great response when asked if Paige Bueckers was on a minutes restriction in her return from injury.
Grant Young|
Apr 4, 2024; Cleveland, OH, USA; UConn Huskies coach Geno Auriemma (left) and guard Paige Bueckers during press conference at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Apr 4, 2024; Cleveland, OH, USA; UConn Huskies coach Geno Auriemma (left) and guard Paige Bueckers during press conference at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The UConn Huskies women's basketball team improved to 16-2 in the 2024-25 NCAA season after they cruised to a 71-45 victory over the St. John's Red Storm on January 15.

Since the expectation was that UConn would win this game with relative ease, a lot of the attention was on how star guard Paige Bueckers would fare in her first game back after suffering a knee sprain on January 5.

While Bueckers was moving well enough on the court, she only finished the game with 12 points (on 4 of 7 shooting from the field), 5 rebounds, and 2 steals in 23 minutes played.

23 minutes is the least amount of time Bueckers has played in a game all season. Therefore, it made sense for Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma to be asked whether she was on a minutes restriction on Wednesday due to her returning from the injury.

"Well, she said she wasn't," Auriemma said in response to this question, per an X post from SNY. "How many minutes did she play? 23?

"Yeah, she said 'I'm not on a minutes restriction.' I said, 'Well actually, you are. But it will have nothing to do with your leg'" Auriemma added with a smile. "'It will be everything [about] how you play.' That's why I couldn't wait to get her out in the first half."

He then added, "I was hoping for like 20, 21, 22, maybe 10, 11 minutes each half. So I think we hit the mark pretty close."

We imagine Bueckers will have her minutes extended when UConn faces Seton Hall on January 19.

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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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