Paige Bueckers Details How Special It Is to Play First WNBA Game Back in Connecticut

The WNBA rookie will return to Connecticut to face the Sun on Tuesday night.
Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers stands on the court.
Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers stands on the court. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Paige Bueckers has the opportunity to do something really special on Tuesday night when her Dallas Wings face the Connecticut Sun. The Wings have yet to capture their first win of the 2025 season, meaning Bueckers is still waiting for her first WNBA win. The No. 1 pick could pick up that first victory back in an arena where she used to compete with UConn.

The Wings will play at Mohegan Sun Arena, a venue where the Huskies went 15-0 during Bueckers's tenure with the Huskies. She's hoping to continue that luck when the Wings play on Tuesday night.

“I feel like Mohegan is like my second home to Gampel [Pavilion] in Connecticut, so it’s great to be back,” Bueckers said, via Hartford Courant's Emily Adams. “It’s definitely different. It’ll be weird stepping on the court, I think, not in a UConn uniform, but it’ll be something that I’ll enjoy with a new experience and a new team and new organization. It’s just another step in the new journey, and I’ll definitely enjoy being back here in the state I love so much.

"I don’t think we lost in my UConn career at Mohegan, so we’re trying to carry those vibes over to this game, just approach it with a winning mentality and trying to conquer the next game in front of us.”

It would be extremely fitting if Bueckers can win her first WNBA game back in Connecticut, where she became a huge basketball star with UConn.

Bueckers has already had a homecoming in her home state of Minnesota when the Wings faced the Lynx last week. Now, she will have her reunion at her second home in Connecticut this week.


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Madison Williams
MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.