Paige Bueckers is happy to see her ex-teammate back in the “Basketball Capital of the World.” Former UConn forward Aaliyah Edwards is currently in Connecticut to receive a highly deserved honor from her former team.
Edwards has been making waves in the WNBA since being drafted by the Washington Mystics as their sixth pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. In August 2025, she was traded to the Connecticut Sun.
Edwards came back to the UConn camp briefly to be inducted into the Huskies of Honor. The entire team is elated to have her back, and Bueckers, who now plays for the Dallas Wings in the WNBA, is happy to see Edwards receive the honor.
“Liliiiii Day!!!!” she WROTE on her Instagram story.
“That group that came, Paige [Bueckers], Nika [Mühl], Aaliyah [Edwards], obviously, they had a huge impact as a group, and they all kinda did it, together sometimes, individually sometimes,” Head coach Geno Auriemma said on Tuesday.
“I thought that NCAA tournament in the bubble, I thought Aaliyah [Edwards] may have been one of the top five players in the entire tournament,” he added.
Edwards took the UConn women’s basketball team to the Final Four in her senior year of college, with only eight players available.
“Sometimes careers go smoothly; sometimes it’s rocky, she [Edwards] managed to make the best out of a very difficult situation,” Auriemma said.
Being honored by the program Edwards represented from 2020 to 2024, which also became her foundation for the WNBA must be a special feeling. The program understands the influence she has had on young players, and honoring her only emphasizes that.
Paige Bueckers on Her Rivalry with Caitlin Clark
Caitlin Clark, over the last few years, has become the most popular basketball player in the country. Her meteoric rise to superstardom has been very beneficial for the league as they’ve put up big numbers in TV ratings and viewership since she joined.
In addition to the fanfare, Clark is one of the most skilled players in the world. So, it’s always better to have a rival alongside her, someone who can be presented as a challenge. Angel Reese was that player for a while, but her numbers no longer match up to Clark’s.
Now, the media is forcing another rivalry. With Paige Bueckers. The Wings point guard has no interest in entertaining that narrative because she considers Clark a good friend.
“It’s crazy ’cause like everybody’s pinned me and Caitlin against each other for the longest time and we’re cool, like we’re friends,” she said.
Bueckers made it clear that there’s mutual respect between the two. Since they’re both competitors, they’ll compete at their level best against each other, but if people expect them to hate each other, that’s not going to happen.
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